New CCTV shows the moment a gang of thieves rolled a £4.75 million gold toilet away from Blenheim Palace and bundled it into the back of a car in an ‘audacious’ early morning raid.
Two cars can be seen streaking across the lawn up to the palace before three men jump out and head inside.
Within five minutes, they reappear with the one-of-a-kind 18-carat toilet in tow, which they dump in the boot of a blue VW Golf. The car can be seen sagging under the 98kg weight.
One of the group can then be seen clutching the golden toilet seat which is also thrown into the back of the car.
Palace security guards who had been watching on CCTV chased on foot as the two cars sped away from the scene, Oxford Crown Court was told.
The fully functioning toilet was insured for the sum of six million dollars (£4.75 million) and has never been found, the court heard previously.
The satirical work, titled ‘America’, had been installed as an artwork at the Oxfordshire country house where Sir Winston Churchill was born.
Michael Jones, 39, from Oxford, denies stealing the artwork in an overnight raid in the early hours of September 14, 2019.
Frederick Sines, 36, also known as Frederick Doe, of Winkfield, Windsor, Berkshire, and Bora Guccuk, 41, from west London, each deny one count of conspiracy to transfer criminal property.
It is alleged that Doe and Guccuk agreed to help one of the burglars, James Sheen, to sell some of the gold in the following weeks.
Jurors were told that Sheen, 40, from Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, has previously pleaded guilty to burglary.
The toilet, which was created by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan, was a star attraction in the exhibition and is believed to have been broken up after it was stolen.
The thieves drove through locked wooden gates into the grounds of Blenheim Palace before breaking in through a window, jurors were told.
‘They knew precisely where to go, broke down the wooden door to the cubicle where the toilet was fully plumbed in, removed it, leaving water pouring out of the pipes, and drove away,’ prosecutor Julian Christopher KC said previously.
‘Clearly such an audacious raid would not have been possible without lots of preparation.’
Within days of the September 2019 raid, two men were using ‘car’ as a codeword for the stolen gold and contact was made with a Hatton Garden jeweller, it is alleged.
Five days before the exhibition opened at the Oxfordshire palace, Jones visited with his partner Carly Jones on what prosecutors have described as the first of two reconnaissance visits, the court heard.
Before it was taken, the golden toilet had been described by critics as a pointed satire against the excesses of wealth.
It gained attention during the first tenure of President Donald Trump when the White House requested to borrow a Vincent van Gogh painting, the Washington Post reported.
Guggenheim curator Nancy Spector declined the request but, perhaps with Mr Trump’s penchant for all things gold in mind, offered the toilet instead.
The trial continues.
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