The Headlines

ROYAL FLUSH. During the marquee New York sales next month, Maurizio Cattelan, whose duct-taped banana sold for $6.2 million last year, might just steal the show one more time. That at least seems to be what Sotheby’s is betting on when it offers the Italian conceptual prankster infamous 18-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 beginning November 8. In an auction first, when the 100-kilogram toilet hits the block on November 18, the starting bid will be determined by the price of the work’s weight in gold—or 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