Four men charged over the theft of a £4.8 million gold toilet from Blenheim Palace have appeared in court.

James Sheen, 39, from Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, and Michael Jones, 38, from Oxford, are accused of burgling the 18-carat art installation in an overnight raid in the early hours of September 14 2019.

Sheen is also charged with transferring criminal property.

Sheen, 35-year-old Frederick Sines from Ascot, Berkshire, and Bora Guccuk, 39, from west London, are also charged with one count of conspiracy to transfer criminal property.

The fully functioning toilet, titled America, was created by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan and housed in the Oxfordshire country house where Sir Winston Churchill was born.

The toilet was placed opposite the room where Churchill was born, and visitors will were able to book a time-slot to use it for £27, provided they finished within three minutes.z

When the lavatory first opened at New York’s Guggenheim museum in 2016, it was so popular that people queued for hours to place their cheeks upon its glittering seat.

Cattelan’s toilet offers a wink to the excesses of the art market, and recalls Marcel Duchamp's famous work, 'Fountain', a 1917 sculpture of a urinal.

Cattelan claimed his interactive exhibit is about "ultimately reminding us of the inescapable physical realities of our shared humanity".

All four defendants were granted unconditional bail at Oxford Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday and will next appear at Oxford Crown Court at 10am on January 4.

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