Sledgehammer-wielding thieves who smashed their way into Blenheim Palace managed to steal a £2.8m gold toilet in just five minutes, a court has heard.
The toilet, an artwork by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan, was fully functioning while on exhibit at Blenheim Palace – the Oxfordshire country house where Sir Winston Churchill was born – when it was stolen in September 2019.
The 18-carat gold toilet, titled America, weighed approximately 98kg and had been insured for the price of $6m (£4.75 m), the prosecution told Oxford Crown Court.
The gold in itself was believed to be worth about £2.8m at the time of the theft.
Michael Jones, 39, from Oxford, pleaded not guilty in January to stealing artwork in an overnight raid in the early hours of 14 September 2019.
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Frederick Sines, 36, also known as Frederick Doe, of Winkfield, Windsor, Berkshire, and Bora Guccuk, 41, from west London, each deny one count of conspiracy to transfer criminal property.
The court heard that the sledgehammers were left at the scene.
Prosecutor Julian Christopher KC said within days of the raid, two men were using “car” as a codeword for the stolen gold and contact was made with a Hatton Garden jeweller.
“The burglary was carefully planned and swiftly carried out,” Mr 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.”
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Mr Christopher added: “The work of art was never recovered. It appears to have been split up into smaller amounts of gold and never recovered.”
It is alleged that Doe and Guccuk agreed to help one of the men who carried out the burglary – a defendant called James Sheen – to sell some of the gold in the following weeks.
Jurors were told a fourth defendant, Sheen, 40, from Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, has previously pleaded guilty to burglary.
He also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to transfer criminal property and one count of transferring criminal property, at Oxford Crown Court in April 2024.
The trial continues.
