Watch CBS News

Trump Asks To Borrow A Van Gogh, Gets Solid Gold Toilet Instead

Follow CBSMIAMI.COM: Facebook | Twitter

MIAMI (CBSMiami) -- New York's Guggenheim Museum offered to lend an 18-karat gold toilet to President Donald Trump after the White House asked to borrow a painting by Vincent Van Gogh, the Washington Post reported on Thursday.

The museum's chief curator offered to loan the toilet, which had been used by tens of thousands of visitors, in a Sept. 15 email to a Trump administration official, the newspaper reported.

The piece, by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan's, is an 18-karat gold, fully functioning toilet. It is called "America."

Gold Toilet
A fully functioning solid gold toilet, made by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan. (CBS4)

The offer came in response to a White House request to borrow the painting "Landscape with Snow" by 19th century Dutch painter Vincent Van Gogh, for installation at the President and First Lady's private living quarters, the Washington Post reported. The request for the painting was declined.

Guggenheim chief curator Nancy Spector had previously written about the toilet in a 2017 blog post, in which she took swipes at the president. She wrote that the "Trump reference" inherent in the gold toilet resonated with people "during the sculpture's time at the Guggenheim."

Trump is known to have a taste for gold and gilded objects. On Christmas Eve, he took calls from children while seated on a gold chair in a tapestried room at his Florida vacation home.

View CBS News In
CBS News App Open
Chrome Safari Continue
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.