bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

sponsorType

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

Agence France-Presse

The streets may be paved with gold in heaven but in New York, it’s a gold toilet providing creature comfort – and an eyeful for visitors to the city’s Guggenheim museum.
The working toilet, cast in brightly gleaming gold, has been installed in a fourth-floor washroom for the use of the public, taking the notion of an intimate setting for art to a new level.
Hong Kong gold toilet shrine to Lenin a 'dream come true'
The installation, America, is the first piece that Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan has exhibited since his 2011 retrospective at the Guggenheim.
From Friday, it can be used as if it were an ordinary unisex toilet by the museum’s visitors, Katherine Brinson, curator of contemporary art at the museum, said.

Visitors “will have a remarkably intimate and unusual encounter with this particular artwork”, she said.
A guard will be posted outside the bathroom door, said the museum, which has refused to put a dollar value on the piece.
Brinson said the work had “many layers, many possible interpretative lenses that one can bring to it”.
“One can see the title as a critique but also as idealistic. After all, this is a work about creating access and opportunity for all for a very wide public, even though it is this lavish luxury item.”


Solid gold toilet opens for business at New York museum, in the name of art

America, the art installation by Italian Maurizio Cattelan that’s a working toilet in solid gold and available for the use of the visitors to the Guggenheim museum in New York. Photo: Kristopher McKay/Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum

A fully functioning solid gold toilet, made by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan, is going into public use at the Guggenheim Museum in New York on September 15, 2016. A guard will be stationed outside the bathroom to protect the work, entitled 'America', which recalls Marcel Duchamp's famous work, 'Fountain'. / AFP PHOTO / William EDWARDS

Culture

Lifestyle

Arts

Travel & Leisure

News

World

United States & Canada

Unisex toilet in washroom for visitors to city’s Guggenheim museum is an art installation called America. ‘One can see the title as a critique,’ curator concedes, ‘but also as idealistic’
