Billionaire financier and New York Mets owner Steve Cohen has been revealed as the mystery consignor behind Maurizio Cattelan's notorious golden toilet sculpture, "America," which is set to go up for auction at Sotheby's on November 18 with an opening bid of approximately $10 million. The revelation ends nearly a decade of speculation about who owned one of the three editions of the fully functional toilet made from 100 kilograms of 18-karat gold.
Cohen, who founded Point72 Asset Management and is known for his extensive art collection featuring blue-chip works by artists like Jasper Johns and Damien Hirst, reportedly purchased his edition of "America" from Marian Goodman Gallery in 2017. The sculpture comes in an edition of three, plus two artist's proofs, and has gained notoriety beyond the art world due to its provocative nature and satirical commentary on wealth and power.
The golden toilet already has a controversial history that has captured public attention. After being displayed at the Guggenheim Museum, another edition of the work was offered to the Trump White House, which had originally requested to borrow a van Gogh painting instead. That same version was later stolen from England's Blenheim Palace in 2019 and has never been recovered, adding to the mystique surrounding Cattelan's creation.
Cattelan is known for his satirical works that often mock wealth and power structures, similar to his previous sensation "Comedian," the duct-taped banana that sold for $6.2 million at Sotheby's last fall. Cohen's decision to sell "America" comes amid growing interest from cryptocurrency collectors and art investors who are eager for another headline-making sale that could generate significant media attention.
Meanwhile, Sotheby's Paris achieved a record-breaking result this week with the sale of the late real estate mogul Manny Davidson's collection, generating a combined total of €18.6 million ($21.5 million) across two in-person auctions. The sales, which took place on Wednesday evening and Thursday during the day, marked the highest total for a single-owner sale in France this year, with figures expected to climb even higher following a third online sale that closed on Friday.
The top lot from the Davidson collection was Michael Sweerts' "A young man wearing a turban holding an upturned roemer: the fingernail test" (1648-52), which sold on Wednesday for €1.6 million ($1.8 million), significantly exceeding its €800,000-1,200,000 ($925,000-1.3 million) estimate. While this represents a solid result, it's worth noting that another rediscovered Sweerts painting sold for over $16 million at Christie's in 2023, providing context for the current market values.
Louis-Xavier Joseph, head of the furniture department at Sotheby's Paris, praised the Davidson collection's quality and breadth following Wednesday's sale. "The depth and quality of Manny Davidson's collection were truly exceptional, every work told a story of passion, refinement, and curiosity," Joseph told ARTnews, highlighting the personal nature of the collector's acquisitions and the careful curation that went into building the collection over many years.
In other art world news, Gladstone Gallery has announced that it now represents the estate of Robert Colescott, adding the acclaimed artist's legacy to their prestigious roster. Additionally, the Philadelphia Museum of Art is preparing a major Vincent van Gogh exhibition titled "Van Gogh's Sunflowers: A Symphony in Blue and Yellow," scheduled to run from June 6 to October 11, 2026, though this has not yet been officially announced by the museum.
The upcoming van Gogh exhibition will bring together two "Sunflowers" paintings, exploring how the artist used color and brushwork to achieve different expressive effects. The museum's own "Sunflowers" (1889), distinguished by its turquoise background, will be joined by at least one major loan - the celebrated Arles version with a yellow background painted in 1888 from London's National Gallery. The London "Sunflowers" has traveled abroad only four times since its acquisition in 1924, making its forthcoming journey to Philadelphia a rare and significant cultural event that underscores the importance of international museum collaborations.
