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Welcome to Criminalia, a production of Shondaland Audio in partnership with IHeartRadio.

If you're in the market for a new toilet for your home, cost can vary greatly based on a few things like size, shape, and features.

In the United States, most new models fall between roughly $100 to $500.

Depending on what you're looking for, costs could reach upwards of $8,000 or more.

But even an $8,000 toilet isn't the most expensive.

When Italian conceptual artist Maurizio Catalan's sculpture of a gold toilet called America went missing in 2019, it was valued at more than $6 million.

Welcome to Criminalia. I'm Maria Tramarky.

And I'm Holly Fry. You may or may not recognize this

contemporary artist by name, but you may know his work, because it makes news.

Maurizio Catalan is perhaps most famously known for his installation titled The Comedian,

which was a banana duct taped to a gallery's booth wall who was first seen at Art

Basel Miami Beach Fair. That piece sold at Sotheby's for more than $6 million. In 2016, NPR

described Catalan as a, quote, provocateur, prankster, and tragic poet of our times. He's also frequently been called

controversial. In addition to the comedian, some of his most famous works are La Nona Oara, which is the

ninth hour, that's a wax statue depicting Pope John Paul II, lying on the floor after being struck by a meteor,

as well as a piece called Love, L-Pyriot, O, period, V, E, period, which is a piece of public art

depicting a hand giving a middle finger. That is permanently installed in Piazza Afari in Milan, Italy.

America is an example of satirical participatory art, and according to the artist is a commentary on wealth and excess.

Now, when we say it was participatory art, we really mean it.

America was a fully functioning plumbed toilet that happened to be made out of

18-carat solid gold. Nancy Spector, a museum curator who has held positions at the Guggenheim

...