Sotheby’s has revealed that Cattelan created three toilets in 2016, with work number two now up for sale.
The second version will be on display in a bathroom at New York’s Breuer Building until it goes under the hammer.
The auction house described it as a “cultural phenomenon” and an “incisive commentary on the collision of artistic production and commodity value”.
David Galperin, head of contemporary art at Sotheby’s New York, said: “America is Maurizio Cattelan’s tour de force.”
“Holding both a proverbial and literal mirror to the art world, the work confronts the most uncomfortable questions about art, and the belief systems held sacred to the institutions of the market and the museum,” Mr Galperin explained.
The auction house said that in a world first, the starting bid on the artwork would be determined by the exact price of its weight in gold when the sale begins.
That means, if sold at today’s rate, bidding on the solid gold toilet would begin at around $10m (£7.6m).