Useable gold toilet to be installed at British palace

A solid-gold toilet is set to be installed in one of the UKs grandest palaces, while allowing the general public to use it, the media reported on Friday.

The 18-carat gold artwork, "America" by Maurizio Cattelan, made headlines in the US after the Guggenheim offered it to President Donald Trump instead of the Van Gogh painting he requested, the Guardian reported.

It will be plumbed into a bathroom at Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire, near the room in which late British Prime Minister Winston Churchill was born.

The Palace, a Unesco World Heritage Site, is most famous as Churchill's birthplace and home.

Visitors will be able to admire and use the toilet, an experience that will be new even to the Marlborough family who have enjoyed lives of luxury at Blenheim for more than 300 years.

"Despite being born with a silver spoon in my mouth I have never had a s*** on a golden toilet, so I look forward to it," said Edward Spencer-Churchill, the current Duke of Marlborough's half-brother and founder of the Blenheim Art Foundation.

"It will be an installed, working, usable toilet."

There will be enhanced security, Spencer-Churchill said, but whether there will be a queuing system or booked slots has yet to be decided.

When the artwork was installed in the Guggenheim in New York in 2016 people queued for about two hours before being allowed in one at a time.

Cleaners sanitised the toilet every 15 minutes. An estimated 100,000 people visited the installation and posted a blizzard of selfies and toilet humour on Twitter.

The toilet will form part of an extensive Cattelan exhibition at Blenheim Palace, which follows successful shows dedicated to Ai Weiwei, Lawrence Weiner, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Jenny Holzer and Yves Klein.

--IANS

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