Ripley's Buys Gold Toilet Artwork for $12.1 Million

Entertainment company Ripley's Believe It or Not! has acquired Maurizio Cattelan's provocative sculpture "America," a fully functional toilet made of solid 18-karat gold, for 12.1 million dollars at a Sotheby's auction in New York on November 18.

The work, which weighs 101.2 kilograms and consists of 2,440 ounces of gold, sold for a hammer price of 10 million dollars, with an additional 2.1 million dollars in fees bringing the total to 12.1 million. The bid matched the approximate current market value of the raw gold used in its construction. Ripley's emerged as the sole bidder and revealed itself as the buyer the following day, November 19, through an Instagram post timed for World Toilet Day, a United Nations observance promoting global sanitation access.

"This World Toilet Day, we're flush with excitement!" the company wrote in the post. "Ripley's Believe It or Not! has purchased a solid gold toilet for 12.1 million!" The acquisition marks the most valuable item to enter Ripley's collection of curiosities, which spans museums, theme parks and artifacts displayed in its Odditoriums worldwide. Ripley's stated it plans to exhibit the sculpture publicly, allowing visitors to view...