Maurizio Cattelan Pisses Away a Fortune at the Guggenheim

The Guggenheim benefits from Maurizio Cattelan’s return from retirement. The artist says his forthcoming work in the museum is not a joke. It is, however, a solid gold toilet that the artist says only becomes a work of art “with someone sitting on it or standing over it, answering nature’s call.”

“Actually, it’s even more of a torture not to work than to work,” he said in an interview. And so he is coming out of retirement with a new sculpture that seems designed to proclaim his return with an exclamation point, though the piece is of modest size and will not be on view in a public gallery.

It will, instead, be installed in early May just off one of the ramps of the Guggenheim Museum in Manhattan, in a small, humble room where visitors often feel the urge to spend some time alone.

Duchamp, Eat Your Heart Out: The Guggenheim Is Installing a Gold Toilet (The New York Times)