Free Republic

Now they’re headed to the can! A British bandit and his accomplice were convicted Tuesday of snatching a $6.2 million golden toilet from the English country mansion where Winston Churchill was born then reselling parts of the precious potty. Michael Jones, 39, swiped the gleaming 18-karat-gold loo in under five minutes during a wild heist at Blenheim Palace in 2019 — then teamed up with Frederick Doe, 38, to resell parts of the artwork, the Oxford Crown Court found. Michael Jones in a blue coat leaving Oxford Magistrates' Court, following charges over the theft of a gold toilet from Blenheim...

Thieves have stolen a solid gold toilet worth up to £1 million ($1.25 million) from the birthplace of British wartime leader Winston Churchill. The toilet, the work of Italian conceptual artist Maurizio Cattelan, had been installed only two days earlier at Blenheim Palace, west of London, after previously being shown at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. Police said the toilet was taken early Saturday by thieves who used at least two vehicles. …

Unlike professional athletes, actors (Gene Hackman) and some novelists (Philip Roth), visual artists don’t usually retire. Or if they do, they don’t announce it. But in 2011, Maurizio Cattelan — one of the most expensive living artists, then at the peak of his career and the subject of an uproarious retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum — told the world that he was finished, fatigued both creatively and by the velocity of the money-fueled art world. During the last couple of years, though, Mr. Cattelan found himself itching to make things in three dimensions again. “Actually, it’s even more of a...