A gang that broke into Blenheim Palace to steal a solid gold toilet worth £4.8m made so much noise that staff thought a boiler had exploded, a court heard. The artwork, called America, was taken from the Oxfordshire stately home in the early hours of 14 September 2019,

According to prosecutors, it took thieves less than five minutes to swipe the 18-carat gold artwork, which has never been recovered.

Three men went on trial in England accused in the heist of an 18-carat golden toilet from an art exhibit at Winston Churchill’s birthplace. The fully-functioning toilet, a work titled “America,” was stolen from the Churchill family palace in 2019 in a heist caught on surveillance cameras.