Museum turns down Trump's request for Van Gogh painting, offers gold toilet instead

Trump requested to borrow Vincent Van Gogh's painting for White House

New York's Guggenheim Museum turned down US President Donald Trump's request to borrow Vincent Van Gogh's 'Landscape with Snow' painting for the White House. They instead offered him a gold toilet, according to Washington Post.

Apologising that they could not furnish the White House with the Van Gogh work, they suggested a "solid, 18-karat toilet" could be offered as an alternative.



Museum curator Nancy Spector responded to the White House request last September in an email, saying "I am sorry... to inform you that we are unable to participate in this loan since the painting is part of the museum's Thannhauser Collection, which is prohibited from travel except for the rarest of occasions."

Van Gogh's 1888 painting would be exhibited at the museum's sister institution with the permission of the owners, according to the email.

The museum said it could not loan out Van Gogh's Landscape With Snow. PHOTO: GUGGENHEIM

The curator, however, added that the gold toilet created by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan was available to the White House "for a long-term loan".

"It is, of course, extremely valuable and somewhat fragile, but we would provide all the instructions for its installation and care," Spector added.



The exhibit by Cattelan is titled 'America' and is seen as a satire on the excessive wealth in the US. In a phone call with Washington Post, Cattelan was asked the meaning of his creation and why he offered it to the Trumps. He replied saying, "What's the point of our life?Everything seems absurd until we died and then it makes sense."

According to Washington Post, it is common for US presidents and first ladies to borrow major art works to decorate the rooms in the White House.

This story originally appeared on Washington Post