Art Auction

Auction of controversial African art collection in Houston again halted by 11th-hour court filing – Houston Public Media

July 26, 20245 Mins Read


African Art Auction 1

Joe Walker

Pictured is a collection of African art that has been stored in an office building at 6464 Savoy Dr. in Houston.

The apparent owner of an African art collection once controversially housed by a prominent Houston politician again stopped a court-ordered auction of the pieces Thursday, making an 11th-hour legal maneuver for the second time in less than four months.

After thwarting the first scheduled auction in early April by filing for Chapter 13 bankruptcy protection the night before, Houston man Sam Njunuri requested a temporary restraining order a few hours before the 1,400 bronze, clay and wooden sculptures were set to be sold Thursday morning at the southwest Houston office building where they have been stored.

The auction was scheduled to help satisfy a 2022 court judgment against Njunuri, who was ordered to pay about $990,000 in damages to Darlene Jarrett and Sylvia Jones. They sued Njunuri and others in 2017 after their furniture and other belongings were taken from a Houston-area home they had agreed to rent from Njunuri.

“I would say it’s like ‘Groundhog Day,’ but it’s not,” said Joseph Walker, the attorney for Jarrett and Jones, referencing the 1993 film in which the main character repeatedly relives the same day.

Neither Njunuri nor his attorney, Eric Rhodes, immediately responded to an email Friday seeking comment.

Harris County Precinct 1 Commissioner Rodney Ellis, whose office once was in possession of the art collection, declined to comment through a spokesperson.

Ellis got approval in 2018 from the county commissioners court to receive 14 pieces from the collection to be publicly displayed at county buildings. But Ellis’ office subsequently received more than 1,400 pieces without amending the agreement, according to an investigation by the Houston Chronicle, which reported that Ellis’ office spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxpayer money to transport and preserve the art along with renovating a south Houston warehouse where the pieces were being stored. The setup prompted a public corruption investigation into Ellis, with a Harris County grand jury declining to indict him on criminal charges in 2021.

Rhodes in a Thursday court filing referred to Njunuri as the owner of the “unique and irreplaceable” art, indicating it could be worth at least $10 million, but wrote in another filing that some of the pieces are the property of others. Njunuri referred to himself as the “custodian” of the collection during a May 2023 deposition in which he said some of the pieces “may have been gifts” and some of them “might be stolen,” court records show.

African Art Auction 3

Joe Walker

This piece of art is part of a collection owned by Sam Njunuri that has been stored at 6464 Savoy Dr.

A man named Garaba Konte claimed in an August 2023 affidavit filed in court that he owns 180 of the pieces, having agreed to sell them to Njunuri, whose checks issued to Konte did not clear the bank.

Njunuri’s bankruptcy filing in early April was dismissed about two weeks later, because he did not submit required information such as detailed lists of his assets and creditors, court records show.

Before the bankruptcy filing, the art pieces at 6464 Savoy Dr. were set to be auctioned as one lot. They were set to be sold Thursday as two lots – one for each office-building room where they are located – according to Walker.

Walker said an emergency hearing was held Thursday morning in which Judge Lauren Reeder granted the temporary restraining order requested by Njunuri with the following two conditions: He has until Aug. 15 to identify one or two pieces of art that an appraiser determines are worth at least $990,000, the amount of the judgment against him, or he must hire an appraiser to catalog the entire collection and determine its value. In either case, a subsequent auction would be ordered, court documents show.

Walker called the order a “very good solution to this problem.”

“I think Sam actually needs to have a proper evaluation of what this stuff is worth. I don’t think he has an idea,” Walker said. “If he’s going to say it’s worth $10 million, we need to find out if it’s worth $10 million. If it’s worth that much money, I don’t know why you wouldn’t sell a few pieces and try to satisfy the judges.”

Walker said the number of prospective buyers for the art collection diminished between the first scheduled auction and the second, noting that “a lot fewer” bidders showed up Thursday morning. That harms his clients, who are “frustrated,” Walker said.

But the attorney also said the terms of the temporary restraining order could end up getting Jarrett and Jones closer to the nearly $1 million judgment they were awarded, particularly if the art pieces are determined to be worth as much as Njunuri and his attorney contend.

“I guess we’ll find out,” Walker said. “I’m inclined to think there’s some valuable pieces in there. Art’s a funny thing, isn’t it?”



Source link

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Posts