Men jailed for stealing golden toilet from UK mansion
Two men who stole a golden toilet from an English mansion have been sentenced to more than two years in prison.
The 18-carat fully functioning toilet was on display as a piece of contemporary art at Blenheim Palace - the country mansion where British wartime leader Winston Churchill was born - when five burglars smashed a window and yanked it from its plumbing in a brazen early-morning raid in September 2019.
It was never recovered and was believed to have been chopped up and sold.
James Sheen, 40, a roofer who pleaded guilty to burglary, conspiracy and transferring criminal property was sentenced in Oxford Crown Court to four years in prison.
Michael Jones, 39, who worked for Sheen and was convicted of burglary at trial, was sentenced to two years and three months.
The toilet weighed 98kg and was worth more than its weight in gold, being insured for more than $US6 million ($A9.2 million).
The toilet was part of a satirical commentary on consumer culture, titled America, by Italian conceptual artist Maurizio Cattelan, whose work of a banana duct-taped to a wall was sold in 2024 for $US6.2 million at auction in New York.
"This bold and brazen heist took no more than five-and-a-half minutes to complete," Judge Ian Pringle said in recounting the crime on Friday.
"America has never been seen again."
The piece that poked fun at excessive wealth had previously been on display at The Guggenheim Museum, in New York, which 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.
Jones had booked a viewing of the toilet the day before the theft to take photos, check out the lock and have his own private session on the golden throne.
He deemed the experience "splendid" during his testimony.
The next morning before dawn the gang of thieves crashed through the wooden gates of the palace in two stolen vehicles and tore well-tended lawns.
They pulled up to the estate's courtyard and smashed a window that Jones had photographed the day before.
The thieves used sledgehammers and a crowbar to wrench the toilet from its foundation, causing considerable damage to the 18th-century property, a UNESCO World Heritage site filled with valuable art and furniture that draws thousands of visitors each year.
Two men who stole a golden toilet from an English mansion have been sentenced to more than two years in prison.
The 18-carat fully functioning toilet was on display as a piece of contemporary art at Blenheim Palace - the country mansion where British wartime leader Winston Churchill was born - when five burglars smashed a window and yanked it from its plumbing in a brazen early-morning raid in September 2019.
It was never recovered and was believed to have been chopped up and sold.
James Sheen, 40, a roofer who pleaded guilty to burglary, conspiracy and transferring criminal property was sentenced in Oxford Crown Court to four years in prison.
Michael Jones, 39, who worked for Sheen and was convicted of burglary at trial, was sentenced to two years and three months.
The toilet weighed 98kg and was worth more than its weight in gold, being insured for more than $US6 million ($A9.2 million).
The toilet was part of a satirical commentary on consumer culture, titled America, by Italian conceptual artist Maurizio Cattelan, whose work of a banana duct-taped to a wall was sold in 2024 for $US6.2 million at auction in New York.
"This bold and brazen heist took no more than five-and-a-half minutes to complete," Judge Ian Pringle said in recounting the crime on Friday.
"America has never been seen again."
The piece that poked fun at excessive wealth had previously been on display at The Guggenheim Museum, in New York, which 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.
Jones had booked a viewing of the toilet the day before the theft to take photos, check out the lock and have his own private session on the golden throne.
He deemed the experience "splendid" during his testimony.
The next morning before dawn the gang of thieves crashed through the wooden gates of the palace in two stolen vehicles and tore well-tended lawns.
They pulled up to the estate's courtyard and smashed a window that Jones had photographed the day before.
The thieves used sledgehammers and a crowbar to wrench the toilet from its foundation, causing considerable damage to the 18th-century property, a UNESCO World Heritage site filled with valuable art and furniture that draws thousands of visitors each year.
Two men who stole a golden toilet from an English mansion have been sentenced to more than two years in prison.
The 18-carat fully functioning toilet was on display as a piece of contemporary art at Blenheim Palace - the country mansion where British wartime leader Winston Churchill was born - when five burglars smashed a window and yanked it from its plumbing in a brazen early-morning raid in September 2019.
It was never recovered and was believed to have been chopped up and sold.
James Sheen, 40, a roofer who pleaded guilty to burglary, conspiracy and transferring criminal property was sentenced in Oxford Crown Court to four years in prison.
Michael Jones, 39, who worked for Sheen and was convicted of burglary at trial, was sentenced to two years and three months.
The toilet weighed 98kg and was worth more than its weight in gold, being insured for more than $US6 million ($A9.2 million).
The toilet was part of a satirical commentary on consumer culture, titled America, by Italian conceptual artist Maurizio Cattelan, whose work of a banana duct-taped to a wall was sold in 2024 for $US6.2 million at auction in New York.
"This bold and brazen heist took no more than five-and-a-half minutes to complete," Judge Ian Pringle said in recounting the crime on Friday.
"America has never been seen again."
The piece that poked fun at excessive wealth had previously been on display at The Guggenheim Museum, in New York, which 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.
Jones had booked a viewing of the toilet the day before the theft to take photos, check out the lock and have his own private session on the golden throne.
He deemed the experience "splendid" during his testimony.
The next morning before dawn the gang of thieves crashed through the wooden gates of the palace in two stolen vehicles and tore well-tended lawns.
They pulled up to the estate's courtyard and smashed a window that Jones had photographed the day before.
The thieves used sledgehammers and a crowbar to wrench the toilet from its foundation, causing considerable damage to the 18th-century property, a UNESCO World Heritage site filled with valuable art and furniture that draws thousands of visitors each year.
Two men who stole a golden toilet from an English mansion have been sentenced to more than two years in prison.
The 18-carat fully functioning toilet was on display as a piece of contemporary art at Blenheim Palace - the country mansion where British wartime leader Winston Churchill was born - when five burglars smashed a window and yanked it from its plumbing in a brazen early-morning raid in September 2019.
It was never recovered and was believed to have been chopped up and sold.
James Sheen, 40, a roofer who pleaded guilty to burglary, conspiracy and transferring criminal property was sentenced in Oxford Crown Court to four years in prison.
Michael Jones, 39, who worked for Sheen and was convicted of burglary at trial, was sentenced to two years and three months.
The toilet weighed 98kg and was worth more than its weight in gold, being insured for more than $US6 million ($A9.2 million).
The toilet was part of a satirical commentary on consumer culture, titled America, by Italian conceptual artist Maurizio Cattelan, whose work of a banana duct-taped to a wall was sold in 2024 for $US6.2 million at auction in New York.
"This bold and brazen heist took no more than five-and-a-half minutes to complete," Judge Ian Pringle said in recounting the crime on Friday.
"America has never been seen again."
The piece that poked fun at excessive wealth had previously been on display at The Guggenheim Museum, in New York, which 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.
Jones had booked a viewing of the toilet the day before the theft to take photos, check out the lock and have his own private session on the golden throne.
He deemed the experience "splendid" during his testimony.
The next morning before dawn the gang of thieves crashed through the wooden gates of the palace in two stolen vehicles and tore well-tended lawns.
They pulled up to the estate's courtyard and smashed a window that Jones had photographed the day before.
The thieves used sledgehammers and a crowbar to wrench the toilet from its foundation, causing considerable damage to the 18th-century property, a UNESCO World Heritage site filled with valuable art and furniture that draws thousands of visitors each year.
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A British-flagged luxury superyacht that sank off Sicily in 2024, killing UK tech magnate Mike Lynch and six others, has partially resurfaced as salvage recovery crews finalise the complex operation to bring it ashore for further investigation. The white top and blue hull of the 56-metre Bayesian was visible on the surface on Saturday, but was not clear of the sea yet in a holding area of a yellow floating crane barge. "Pumping out of sea water will continue and it will be lunchtime, following a series of lifting and resting procedures to satisfy the salvage team, before Bayesian is fully and finally out of the water," said David Wilson, spokesman for TMC Maritime, which is conducting the recovery operation. The Bayesian sank August 19 off Porticello, near Palermo, during a violent storm as Lynch was treating friends to a cruise to celebrate his acquittal two months earlier in the US on fraud charges. Lynch, his daughter and five others died. Fifteen people survived, including the captain and all crew members except the chef. Italian authorities are conducting a full criminal investigation. TMC Maritime said the vessel has been slowly raised from the seabed, 50m down, in the past three days to allow the steel lifting straps, slings and harnesses to be secured under the keel. Eight steel lifting straps are being used to support the hull upright and to form part of a steel wire lifting system that began raising the vessel out of the water on Saturday. As it is lifted up, sea water is pumped out of the hull. On Sunday, it is anticipated the floating crane platform will move the Bayesian to the Sicilian port of Termini Imerese, where a special steel cradle is waiting for it. The Bayesian is missing its 72m mast, which was cut off and left on the seabed for future removal. British investigators said in an interim report issued in May that the yacht was knocked over by "extreme wind" and could not recover. A British-flagged luxury superyacht that sank off Sicily in 2024, killing UK tech magnate Mike Lynch and six others, has partially resurfaced as salvage recovery crews finalise the complex operation to bring it ashore for further investigation. The white top and blue hull of the 56-metre Bayesian was visible on the surface on Saturday, but was not clear of the sea yet in a holding area of a yellow floating crane barge. "Pumping out of sea water will continue and it will be lunchtime, following a series of lifting and resting procedures to satisfy the salvage team, before Bayesian is fully and finally out of the water," said David Wilson, spokesman for TMC Maritime, which is conducting the recovery operation. The Bayesian sank August 19 off Porticello, near Palermo, during a violent storm as Lynch was treating friends to a cruise to celebrate his acquittal two months earlier in the US on fraud charges. Lynch, his daughter and five others died. Fifteen people survived, including the captain and all crew members except the chef. Italian authorities are conducting a full criminal investigation. TMC Maritime said the vessel has been slowly raised from the seabed, 50m down, in the past three days to allow the steel lifting straps, slings and harnesses to be secured under the keel. Eight steel lifting straps are being used to support the hull upright and to form part of a steel wire lifting system that began raising the vessel out of the water on Saturday. As it is lifted up, sea water is pumped out of the hull. On Sunday, it is anticipated the floating crane platform will move the Bayesian to the Sicilian port of Termini Imerese, where a special steel cradle is waiting for it. The Bayesian is missing its 72m mast, which was cut off and left on the seabed for future removal. British investigators said in an interim report issued in May that the yacht was knocked over by "extreme wind" and could not recover.
