According to a press release from Crown Protive Service, a judge sentenced two men in a 2019 raid at Blenheim Palace in England who stole Maurizio Cattelan’s 18-carat gold toilet in a 2019 raid.
227 lb toilet, titled “USA” (2016) Two days after public display in England, it was removed in a five-minute raid. The work was first appeared in the Guggenheim Museum in New York a few years ago, and was exhibited at the artist’s 18th-century castle and Winston Churchill’s family residence.
James Sheen was convicted of theft and sentenced to four years in prison, while Michael Jones was detained in the palace and sentenced to 27 months in prison.
A jury at Oxford Crown Court previously found Jones guilty of theft and Frederick Doe guilty of conspiracy to convert or transfer of criminal property. Sheen, a builder who hired Jones, previously pleaded guilty to a burglary.
Sheen was previously sentenced to 21 months in prison, suspended for two years and ordered to perform 240 hours of community service.
Given the level of planning for the raid was achieved within five minutes, the criminals left so much evidence after them.
Jones allegedly visited Blenheim Palace twice: once before the toilet exhibition and then after installing the live photos.
On September 14, 2019, at around 5 a.m., Sheen and his accomplices drove two stolen vehicles through the locked gate of the palace. As CCTV captured on CCTV, the group broke into the palace with a sledgehammer and crowbar and removed the toilet. They then loaded it into the rear of one of the vehicles and escaped.
In the days after the burglary, Sheen contacted DOE about the days when she used coded messages to sell gold. The two discussed the salary of £26,500 ($34,500) per kilogram of stolen gold.
“We reviewed nearly 30,000 pages of evidence when we established the case, including a large amount of material from James Sheen’s phone call. We checked text messages, images and voice recording times, many of which involved others. Sheen and the people he communicated with used codes and s-languages, and it was necessary to carefully analyze the messages to understand how these messages were carried and how they carried saund of saund of saund of saund of saund of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors of fors
He added: “Three people involved in this crime have now been sentenced and we believe this prosecution has played a role in undermining the wider crime and money laundering network.”
The toilet insurance premium is about $6 million and has not been recovered yet.
