Trio on trial over $6m gold toilet stolen from Churchill’s home
Three men are on trial over an “audacious raid” in which a gold toilet worth almost $6 million was stolen from Blenheim Palace.
The trio appeared in Oxford Crown Court on Monday, charged over the theft, in which the distinctive fully functioning toilet was stolen by sledgehammer-wielding thieves, who smashed their way into the palace.
The toilet – actually an artwork called entitled America – had been split up and disposed of since the September 2019 theft, the court heard on Monday (British time).
Created by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan, it had been a star attraction in an exhibition at the Oxfordshire country house where Sir Winston Churchill was born in 1874.
Only days after the theft, the prosecution said on Monday, two men who used “car” as a codeword for the stolen gold made contact with a jeweller in the London suburb of Hatton Garden.
Prosecutor Julian Christopher KC said the raid took just five minutes.
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“It was an unusual work of art, being a fully functioning toilet made of 18-carat gold, entitled America,” he said.
“It weighed approximately 98 kilograms and was insured for the sum of $US6 million ($A9.44 million).
“The gold it was made from was itself worth in the region of £2.8 million ($A5.6 million) at the time.”
Michael Jones, 39, is on trial charged with one count of burglary. He has pleaded not guilty.
Fred Doe, 36, and Bora Guccuk, 40, are each charged with one count of conspiracy to convert or transfer criminal property, namely gold, which they deny.
A fourth man James Sheen, 39, has previously pleaded guilty to burglary.
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The trial for Jones, Doe and Guccuk is due to last four weeks.
The court heard that the sledgehammers were left at the scene.
“The burglary was carefully planned and swiftly carried out,” Christopher said.
“The men, five of them it appears, drove through locked wooden gates into the grounds of Blenheim Palace shortly before 5am in two stolen vehicles, an Isuzu truck and a VW Golf.
“They drove across a field, up to the front steps and smashed and broke in through a window.
“They knew precisely where to go, broke down the wooden door to the cubicle where the toilet was fully plumbed in, removed it, leaving water pouring out of the pipes, and drove away.
“All in all they spent just five minutes in the building.
“Clearly such an audacious raid would not have been possible without lots of preparation.”
The prosecution alleges that Jones took a photograph of the installation about 17 hours before the toilet was stolen, while he was at Blenheim “as part of the reconnaissance for the burglary”.
“The work of art was never recovered. It appears to have been split up into smaller amounts of gold and never recovered,” Christopher said.
Jones was arrested on October 16, 2019. When police analysed his phone they found he had allegedly been searching for newspaper reports about the stolen toilet on September 20.
The trial continues.
