LONDON (AP) — Four men were charged Monday over the theft of an 18-carat gold toilet from Blenheim Palace, the sprawling English country mansion where British wartime leader Winston Churchill was born.

  • Codex@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    I like how the headline mentions the toilet is “satirical” as if they were worried people might think they had a non-ironic 18k solid golden toilet. I’m sure the thieves were only stealing the toilet as a parody of crime.

    • Salamendacious@lemmy.worldOP
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      8 months ago

      You know someone somewhere got their feathers ruffled when they heard about a good gold toilet named America

      Edit-dang swipe to text. :(

      • Codex@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        good toilet named America

        A good toilet in America, now that would be ironic 😉

  • eric@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    I recognize that toilet! No joke, I pooped in it when it was installed in the NYC Guggenheim (where this article’s photo was taken).

      • Salamendacious@lemmy.worldOP
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        8 months ago

        Not sure about the Guggenheim but in London the article says:

        The golden toilet was fully functioning, and prior to the theft, visitors to the exhibition could book a three-minute appointment to use it.

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        8 months ago

        When I was there, there was a short line to use it, so after I learned it was a special toilet, I just got in line. I try not to poop in public toilets as a rule, but this seemed like the ideal exception to make.

        E: also, it’s a real shame that you weren’t allowed to use it, as use was the primary intention of the artist. I googled it to make sure I wasn’t misremembering…

        From the Guggenheim’s website:

        Its participatory nature, in which viewers are invited to make use of the fixture individually and privately, allows for an experience of unprecedented intimacy with a work of art.

        • WeirdGoesPro@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          8 months ago

          I think I must have seen it when there was no line. Nobody expressly told me I couldn’t use it, but it was obviously an exhibit, and I don’t make a habit of taking risky poops in art.

          If I had only known…

          • eric@lemmy.world
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            8 months ago

            I can completely understand that conclusion. It’s the first and last piece of art that I’ve literally shit on, and it felt weird doing it. It also made me contemplate why toilet seats are the only item in the world that we are ok touching with our skin after many strangers’ bare asses have touched it.

            • WeirdGoesPro@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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              8 months ago

              It’s because, ideally, only the legs and outer cheeks are touching the seat. If a person with short shorts sits in a chair, nobody thinks twice about sitting in the same chair. One anus brushes a seat, and everyone loses their minds.

          • eric@lemmy.world
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            8 months ago

            Yes, my point was that you can use it. I know because I did use it, and the quote was there to back up my experience.

            • SheeEttin@lemmy.world
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              8 months ago

              Oh, “you” referred to that individual instance, I read it as the general.

              This is why more people should adopt the second person plural “y’all”.

    • Salamendacious@lemmy.worldOP
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      8 months ago

      Fountain is a readymade sculpture by Marcel Duchamp in 1917, consisting of a porcelain urinal signed “R. Mutt”. In April 1917, an ordinary piece of plumbing chosen by Duchamp was submitted for an exhibition of the Society of Independent Artists, the inaugural exhibition by the Society to be staged at the Grand Central Palace in New York. When explaining the purpose of his readymade sculpture, Duchamp stated they are “everyday objects raised to the dignity of a work of art by the artist’s act of choice.”