Images show the gold-painted toilet cistern that mysteriously appeared in New Plymouth's Gover Street public toilets earlier this month. Photo: Supplied / New Plymouth District Council, via Facebook
A public toilet cistern in New Plymouth has been stolen and replaced with a golden replica.
It appears to be a call-back to one of the more bizarre stories of the month, when four men were charged last week with the theft of a 18-carat gold toilet valued at £4.8 million (NZ$9.7m), which was taken from Blenheim Palace, south east England, in an overnight raid more than four years ago.
It was part of an art installation, titled "America", by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan, and the toilet was never recovered.
The New Plymouth cistern switcher appears to have removed the main unit from the wall and replaced it with a badly-painted alternative - and as though to reinforce the idea that it was more a statement than a functional alternative - they did not bother connecting it.
On social media, the New Plymouth District Council posted an update: "Looking for a plumber".
"In any other world, who wouldn't love a gold toilet? Not this time! The cistern in the Gover Street toilets was stolen, and the thief replaced it with a zero-carat gold version ... that doesn't even connect."
Commenters on the council's post have expressed disbelief at the act of vandalism ("OMG! That's a new low"), lamented the state of society ("they'll flog anything these days") and taken the opportunity to inject a bit of humour ("I hope you can flush them out").
The council said it had discovered the switch on the weekend of 4 November, when a member of the public called in a fault.
A spokesperson said the incident had been reported to the police and a plumber was called to sort the issue.
The cistern had since been replaced and reconnected, and the toilet was now working again as normal.
