The artist has said America satirises excessive wealth.
“Whatever you eat, a US$200 lunch or a US$2 hot dog, the results are the same, toilet-wise,” he once said.
Two versions of America were created in 2016. The one being sold has been owned by an unnamed collector since 2017.
The other version went on display in a bathroom at the Guggenheim Museum in New York in 2016. More than 100,000 visitors queued up to – to put it delicately – interact with the work.
The Guggenheim had offered the work to US President Donald Trump during his first term in office after he had asked to borrow a Van Gogh painting.
In 2019, it went on show at Blenheim Palace, the English country manor that was the birthplace of Winston Churchill. Within days, it had been stolen by burglars who broke into the building, forcibly wrenched it from the plumbing, and fled.
Two men were convicted earlier this year and jailed. The toilet has never been recovered. Investigators think it was likely broken up and melted down.
Source: CNA
