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$15.7 million gold toilet was bought by Ripley's
The Straits Times
|November 24, 2025
When a solid gold toilet - made with 100kg of 18-karat gold and a plumbing hookup - sold on the evening of Nov 18 during a contemporary art auction, the auction house teased that the buyer was a “famous American brand”.
What the company did not say was that the lone bidder, who spent US$12.1 million (S$15.7 million) on the working sculpture, was an emporium for oddities and amusements.
A spokesperson for Ripley’s Believe It Or Not! confirmed on Nov 19 that the entertainment company had purchased the gold toilet, describing it as “one of the wildest acquisitions in its history”.
“It is now the most valuable and certainly the shiniest exhibit ever to join the Ripley’s collection,” spokeswoman Suzanne Smagala-Potts said in a statement.
This story is from the November 24, 2025 edition of The Straits Times.
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