Maurizio Cattelan stole the show at last year’s fall marquee auctions in New York with his banana duct-taped to a wall that sold for $6.2 million at Sotheby’s. During this November’s fall sales, the Italian conceptual prankser is likely to make a bigger splash, after Sotheby’s announced that it is selling his infamous 16-karat, solid gold toilet.

Titled America (2016), it will be plumbed into a bathroom in the Breuer Building, Sotheby’s new HQ, and visitors will be invited to view it one-by-one from November 8. Despite it being a fully functioning toilet, and the fact that museum-goers have previously been free to relieve themselves in the artwork, there will be a ban on the can this time around.

And in an auction first, when the 100-kilogram toilet hits the block at the house’s The Now and Contemporary evening sale on November 18, the starting bid will be determined by the price of the work’s weight in gold. This is expected to be around $10 million. “Cattelan’s incisive commentary on the collision of artistic production and commodity value has never felt more timely,” Sotheby’s said in a statement.

Sotheby’s confirmed to ARTnews that no bidders have dropped a deposit to secure the work with ...