Now you too can spend a penny in a priceless pissoir: New York's Guggenheim Museum is inviting visitors to take a slash in a gold toilet created by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan.
Those entering the single-occupant unisex restroom may also have a nice dump in the 18-carat crapper, or otherwise "use it as they wish."
From the BBC:
"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," said the Guggenheim.
Cattelan, a Milan-based artist and a truck driver's son, hinted earlier this year that his creation had been inspired by economic inequality.
The exhibit has also drawn comparisons with Marcel Duchamp's avant-garde "Fountain", the porcelain urinal he exhibited in New York in 1917, causing a sensation in the art world.
The above image is a detail of a larger photo by Dodie Kazanjian and accompanies the New Yorker's visit to the patrician potty.
When the work goes public on Friday, a uniformed guard will be standing by the door to answer questions, and also, shall we say, to discourage souvenir takers. A discreet label on the wall outside provides the title, “America.”
