Frederick Doe, a middleman implicated in the audacious theft of a £4.75 million solid gold toilet from Winston Churchill’s birthplace, has walked free from court with a suspended sentence.
The fully functional 18-carat gold artwork, ‘America’ by Maurizio Cattelan, was ripped from its plumbing in a brazen early-hours raid at Blenheim Palace on 14 September 2019. The thieves, armed with sledgehammers and a crowbar, smashed their way in, wrenched the toilet from its fittings, and vanished within minutes, leaving behind only broken doors and unanswered questions.
Doe, 36, from Windsor, was convicted in March of conspiring to offload the stolen gold. On Monday, Oxford Crown Court handed him a 21-month suspended sentence and 240 hours of unpaid work. The court heard he had helped ringleader James Sheen—already serving time—to sell portions of the loot.
Sheen, linked to the crime by DNA on a discarded sledgehammer and gold flecks on his clothes, had previously admitted burglary and handling criminal property. Meanwhile, co-defendant Michael Jones, who once described using the golden lavatory as “splendid,” was found guilty of burglary but maintains his innocence.
Outside the court, Doe claimed he was duped. “My good nature was taken advantage of,” he told reporters. “I got caught up in something I shouldn’t have. Now, I just want to go home to my family.” His friends, cheering as he sped off, insisted he was “a good person”—celebrating with drinks while the artwork remains lost.
Sheen and his accomplices drove two stolen vehicles, a VW Golf and an Isuzu truck, through locked gates at Blenheim Palace shortly before 5 am on the night of the raid. None of the gold has ever been recovered. The CPS stated it is likely to have been “broken up or melted down and sold on soon after it was stolen”.
Thames Valley Police believe five men were involved. Only two have faced justice. Sheen and fellow burglar Michael Jones, 39, are due to be sentenced over their role in the raid next month. The rest? Still privy to speculation.
Maurizio Cattelan (b. 1960, Padua, Italy) is one of contemporary art’s most provocative and irreverent figures. Known for his dark humour and conceptual brilliance, Cattelan’s works often blur the lines between satire, social commentary, and absurdity.
His most infamous pieces include Comedian (2019), a simple yet audacious artwork consisting of a banana duct-taped to a wall. It sold for $120,000 at Art Basel Miami Beach—only to be later eaten by a performance artist. The piece became a viral sensation, sparking debates on the nature of art and commerce.
Another of his headline-grabbing works, America (2016), was a fully functional, 18-carat gold toilet meant as a tongue-in-cheek critique of excess and inequality. The toilet was installed at the Guggenheim Museum in New York before being moved to Blenheim Palace in England. In 2019, it was stolen in a daring five-minute heist, likely melted down and lost forever.
Beyond these works, Cattelan’s career is filled with bold and often controversial pieces, such as La Nona Ora (1999), which depicts Pope John Paul II struck down by a meteorite, and Him (2001), an eerie sculpture of Adolf Hitler in a childlike pose of prayer.
Though he has often claimed to be “retired,” Cattelan continues to challenge the art world with his wit and fearless creativity, proving that his legacy is anything but conventional.
Photo Credit: Maurizio Cattelan Fully functioning toilet made of 18-karat solid gold MossAlbatross Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0
— Artlyst, 19 May 2025