Golden toilet was used by suspect a day before heist who said it was ‘splendid’

A member of a gang of thieves who rolled a £4.75 million gold toilet away from Blenheim Palace and bundled it into the back used the loo just a day before the heist.

Michael Jones, 39, told Oxford Crown Court it was ‘splendid’ to use the fully-functioning toilet, which had been installed as an artwork at the Oxfordshire country house where Sir Winston Churchill was born.

The raid was launched in September 2019, with the court told Jones had taken multiple photos before the robbery.

One of the windows, which was later broken to steal the gold toilet was snapped to ‘capture the view of Union flags in the distance’, Jones claimed.

A lock on the cubicle to the toilet was also photographed. The defendant said it was because he thought it was ‘quite funny that you could actually lock yourself in the toilet’.

The 18-carat toilet, which was created by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan, was a star attraction in an exhibition when it was stolen by sledgehammer-wielding thieves who smashed their way into the palace.

In January, Jones, 39, pleaded not guilty to burglary. Another man, James Sheen, 40, from Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, previously pleaded guilty to burglary.

Frederick Sines, 36, and Bora Guccuk, 41, from west London, each deny one count of conspiracy to transfer criminal property.

The toilet artwork, entitled America, weighed approximately 98 kilos and was taken in a five-minute ‘audacious raid’.

The artwork was insured for 6 million US dollars (£4.75 million) and was made from gold which was itself worth about £2.8 million.

It is believed to have been broken up after it was stolen. The thieves drove through locked, wooden gates into the grounds of the palace before breaking in through a window.

Palace security guards who had been watching on CCTV chased on foot as the two cars sped away from the scene, Oxford Crown Court was told.

The thieves drove through locked wooden gates into the grounds of Blenheim Palace before breaking in through a window, jurors were told.

‘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,’ prosecutor Julian Christopher KC said previously.

‘Clearly such an audacious raid would not have been possible without lots of preparation.’

Before it was taken, the golden toilet had been described by critics as a pointed satire against the excesses of wealth.

It gained attention during the first tenure of President Donald Trump when the White House requested to borrow a Vincent van Gogh painting, the Washington Post reported.

Guggenheim curator Nancy Spector declined the request but, perhaps with Mr Trump’s penchant for all things gold in mind, offered the toilet instead.

The trial continues.

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