In 2020, a discreet upkeep shed in Houston was found to deal with greater than 1,000 items of “priceless” African artwork with no identified provenance. After a prolonged investigation—that ensnared native taxpayers and the county commissioner—the gathering was set for public sale. Nonetheless, the sale, scheduled for Thursday, was abruptly canceled after the purported proprietor of the artwork filed for chapter.
“Final evening Sam Njunuri filed for Chapter 13 Chapter,” lawyer Joe Walker mentioned in a press release, as quoted by KPRC 2, the Houston media outlet answerable for uncovering the scandal.
Walker continued: “This morning Deputy Bivens knowledgeable me that as such the sale has been canceled. Of curiosity in his submitting is his assertion that he has between 1 and 10 million ({dollars}) of property. Submitting for chapter to keep away from this public sale is like leaping into the Tiger cage on the zoo.”
Thursday’s public sale was to be overseen by the workplace of Harris County Precinct 5 Constable Ted Heap.
On the middle of the saga is the shed, which investigators discovered had been remodeled with taxpayer cash into an artwork storage facility to the price of $326,000.
In February 2020, a KPRC 2 crew, tipped off about its mysterious holdings, discovered a discreet storage container fenced-off, laden with high-end safety cameras, surrounded by an digital gate, and plastered with a “no trespassing signal.” Inside had been a whole bunch of African artifacts, of various origin, that an skilled later described as “beautiful”. The shed was revealed to be owned by Harris County and is situated in Harris County Commissioner Rodney Ellis’ precinct. Surveillance footage obtained by KPRC 2 present Ellis visiting the power a number of occasions in a six-month interval between 2019 and 2020. In some movies, he’s seen giving teams and people non-public excursions of the gathering. The ability is closed to the general public.
“Some huge cash obtained spent on a constructing, clearly to make it in order that it might be used to retailer this artwork assortment,” Former Harris County Decide and KPRC 2 Analyst Ed Emmett mentioned in a press release. “The artwork assortment doesn’t belong to the county. The artwork assortment wasn’t even on mortgage to the county.”
The commissioner’s workplace supplied KPRC 2 with a mortgage settlement signed in 2018 between the county and the Texas for-profit firm African Artwork International to show 14 items of African artwork in county buildings. The settlement didn’t present a listing of the a whole bunch of different works within the shed.
“We presently are warehousing an African artwork assortment that we have now an settlement with that was authorized by Commissioners Courtroom, a few years in the past,” a spokesperson for the county commissioner instructed
State data present that, as of 2020, African Artwork International had been out of enterprise for a yr. KPRC 2 crew members visited the tackle listed for the corporate, and located an empty workplace. Greater than a dozen defunct corporations have been linked to Njunuri, who was ordered by a neighborhood court docket in a separate case to pay Walker’s shoppers $279,944.
In 2021, native reporters linked the shed to Sam Njunuri, the proprietor of African Artwork International and alleged proprietor of the gathering. A connection was additionally established between the corporate and the sister-in-law of Ellis. Two felony investigations had been launched by Harris County District Lawyer’s public integrity investigators, throughout which a Harris County grand jury declined to indict Ellis for his involvement. Njunuri has admitted to proudly owning a number of the artworks and has testified underneath oath {that a} portion of the gathering could have been stolen.
The FBI decided {that a} federal crime was not dedicated, nevertheless investigators are nonetheless in search of paperwork to authenticate the gathering’s possession.
“It has all the time been my understanding, and nonetheless is my perception, that Mr. Njunuri owns all of the artwork in query,” Ellis mentioned within the assertion.