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The Maurizio Cattelan sculpture America (2016) at Blenheim Palace before it was stolen. Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images.
We are still actively searching for the stolen piece of artwork and there will be a continued police presence in and around the palace while this search continues. We believe a group of people used at least two vehicles during the burglary, which was reported to Thames Valley Police at 4:57 a.m. on Saturday.
I wish it was a prank. [. . .] At first, when they woke me up this morning with the news, I thought it was a prank: Who’s so stupid to steal a toilet? I had forgotten for a second that it was made out of gold.
That is a very, very valuable toilet [. . .] If they had a refinery or gold smelting equipment ready, it could be melted into gold bars in days and there would be no way to trace them. They could really go into any place that would buy a bullion.