The 18-carat gold toilet at Blenheim Palace was stolen at dawn on September 14, but so far has no clue about it.

The golden toilet was stolen from Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire while being displayed at an exhibition by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan. This gold-casting artwork is estimated to be worth US $ 6 million and is named "America".

Thames Valley Police arrested six people involved in the burglary, but they were later released without prosecution. The whereabouts of "America" up to now are still a big question.

The police may not know what happened to the toilet, but residents of Woodstock, the town near the palace, have a lot of theories.

Gardener Richard Jackson thinks it is still at the palace. The thieves may have thrown it off the bridge into one of the two lakes there. "It won't rust, will it? It could take a year and pick it up and take it out."

Taxi driver Susan Hughes thought the yellow toilet was being hidden at a construction site. "There are many new houses being built near the palace. They dug and dumped soil there. The thieves may have dug the hole, buried the toilet and filled it in the night," she said.

Antique dealer Martin Thomas-Jeffreys thinks these theories are wrong. According to him, the thieves melted "America" to gain $ 4 million worth of gold. "The person who carried out this mission must have carefully planned it. It's like putting a crown in a pocket," he said, adding that no one came to his shop to sell the yellow toilet. .

Others have guessed it was taken out of the UK from a small airport a few kilometers away. Some even stated that the conspiracy theory was not stolen and that the author Cattelan hid it himself as an advertisement. "It is a hoax," said Jackie Blake, 72, who was not involved. "Cattelan is probably sitting somewhere to see people's reactions."

Christine Johnson, an employee at a school, said no one took the theft seriously. "Everyone thought it was a joke," she said. Even some people in the town also prepared to spray yellow toilets to "eat" the burglary.

Before the theft, the fully functional golden toilet was installed in a wooden toilet on the outside of the bedroom where the former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill was born. Visitors can pay to use it. Visitors to the museum in New York were also used when it was on display at the Guggenheim in 2016 - 2017.

Cattelan explained his work to satirize material passion. "Whatever you eat, a $ 200 lunch or a $ 2 hot dog sandwich, the results are the same, going to the toilet," he said.

The night before the burglary, a party was held at the palace to celebrate the Cattelan's exhibition, which ended around two in the morning. A few hours later, thieves broke in and removed the toilet from the toilet, flooding the room. In October, police said they were looking for at least two cars that thieves might have used to escape.

On September 8, a week before the yellow toilet was stolen, four thieves broke into Sudeley Castle, about 50 km from Blenheim Palace to take away some things, including a gold cigarette case and jewelry. power that King Edward VII gave to a lover.

"The thief was not because it was a work of art, but because it was a large piece of gold. It must have been melted within 24 hours of the burglary," said Richard Ellis, former London police and private expert. anti-theft artwork, said.

Artist Cattelan said he did not know who stole the toilet and claimed he was not behind the case, even though he used a similar prank. In 1996, he stole the works of an artist at a gallery in the Netherlands and accepted them as his own.

However, Cattelan does not want to take back the toilet. The work on display at Blenheim is only one of the three vehicles he has built. Since the burglary, Cattelan has become increasingly popular. This month he appeared in an advertising campaign for an Italian insurance company looking to enter the art world

At Blenheim Palace in October, when Cattelan's exhibition was about to end, not everyone gave up hoping to find the toilet. "If found, give it to me, I live in a camping car and it would be great to have a new toilet," musician Kevin Power said.

Laura Ahlbin is very happy that it is gone. She was an American living in England and felt that the work was rude to both her birthplace and Winston Churchill, so she decided to avoid going to the palace during the exhibition, although she had often visited before. When hearing that the toilet was gone, Ahlbin thought, "That's good, I can go back".

But most visitors find it interesting and funny to watch the scene of the burglary being sealed. Lacey Chandler, 9, visiting the exhibition with her father, summed up the feelings of many people: "Why would anyone go to steal a yellow toilet? How many people have put their butt on it".