Did a worker photograph Orban's golden toilet? No, that's not true: The photo originates from Webshops' golden toilet listings.
The claim appeared in a TikTok video published on November 2, 2023, under the title:
Orban's golden toilet. The photo was taken by a worker at Hatvanpuszta. This is a 24-carat lavatory which is worth 800 million.
(Translated from Hungarian to English by Lead Stories staff)
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Tue Nov 7 15:58:14 2023 UTC)
With the help of a Google Lens search, Lead Stories found the same photo attached to golden toilet listings on AliExpress, Alibaba, and many other sites. This photo was not taken by a worker at Orban's house. The cheapest listing found for this toilet is $229 and the toilet is made from ceramic and not 24-carat gold. Hatvanpuszta is a newly renovated mansion near the Prime Minister's home village, Felcsút. It is owned by the PM's father and Orban publicly denied that he has anything to do with it.
The same TikTok account posted another photo of a luxurious toilet, a bit different one. With the title:
Orban's golden toilet in his residency in the Buda Castle, the Karmelita Monastery.
It's a recycled photo again with an unclear origin. With a Google Lens search, we found the same photo uploaded to Reddit in 2013. The renovation of the Karmelita Monastery, the Prime Minister's office building started in 2016.
The photo went viral when Ukrainian Maidan protesters stormed the luxurious residence of Victor Yanukovich, the former president of Ukraine in 2014. Many social media accounts claimed that protesters took that photo in Yanukovich's bathroom. However, the photo was not taken then as it was uploaded online at least a year earlier.
