Four bandits who swiped an 18-karat gold toilet on display at Winston Churchill’s childhood home have been flushed out after a four-year manhunt, English authorities said.
The golden throne, worth $5.95 million, was stolen in 2019 — two days after being installed as part of an art exhibit at Blenheim Palace in England.
The toilet has never been recovered, but on Monday cops arrested James Sheen and Bora Guccuk, both 39, Michael Jones, 38, and Fred Doe, 35, with pulling off the crapper caper
Jones and Sheen face burglary charges, and Sheen was additionally charged with transferring criminal property and conspiracy to do the same.
Guccuk and Doe, meanwhile, have both been charged with conspiracy to transfer criminal property.
The men will appear at Oxford Magistrates’ Court on Nov. 28, the Thames Valley Police said.
The cops did not reveal how they cracked the cold case.
The toilet — which was fully functioning at the time of the theft, according to the BBC — was an artwork titled “America” by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan, who reportedly intended the piece to be a satire on excessive wealth.
“Cattelan’s toilet offers a wink to the excesses of the art market but also evokes the American dream of opportunity for all — its utility ultimately reminding us of the inescapable physical realities of our shared humanity,” Manhattan’s Guggenheim Museum said of the work.
The Guggenheim displayed the golden toilet in a gender-neutral, public restroom from 2016 to 2017, inviting guests to use the lavatory for its intended purpose.
It was transferred to Blenheim Palace in September 2019, and stolen shortly thereafter.
While it was on display at the Churchill family home as part of an exhibition featuring Cattelan, guests could reserve a three-minute appointment to pop a squat, the BBC reported.
Thus, because “America” was actually installed as a working toilet, when thieves executed their early-morning raid, their faulty job at removing the toilet from the water supply line caused a minor flood, per the BBC.
Since that fateful day in 2019, the golden toilet has yet to be recovered.
The Post has sought comment from Blenheim Palace and the Thames Valley Police.
This story originally appeared on NYPost
