Going once … Going twice … Going nowhere.
The auction of an African art collection once stored in a Harris County warehouse at taxpayer expense was postponed Thursday, after the owner filed a last-minute petition seeking a temporary restraining order to block the sale.
It is the second time in three months the auction has been postponed by an 11th-hour court filing by the collection’s owner, Sam Njunuri.
In April, Njunuri filed a petition for bankruptcy the night before the planned sale. A judge dismissed the bankruptcy case and the auction was rescheduled for Thursday.
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More than 1,000 wood and metal statues, carvings, masks and other objects that sat in the Harris County Precinct 1 warehouse in southeast Houston for several years were set to be auctioned off in a sheriff’s sale. The sale originally was ordered by a state district judge last October to satisfy a judgment against Njunuri in a 2017 real estate-related lawsuit .
A jury awarded two women nearly $1 million in damages and legal fees after they sued Njunuri, accusing him of changing the locks and selling their belongings stored in a house they had rented from him.
The artwork was at the center of a public corruption investigation involving Precinct 1 Commissioner Rodney Ellis, whose office took possession of and stored the objects under curious circumstances in 2018. Ellis was cleared of wrongdoing by a Harris County grand jury in 2021.
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Njunuri alleges in his latest filing that the artwork is owned by other people, that key facts were omitted from the initial lawsuit and that he was misrepresented.
Joseph Walker, the attorney for the two women who filed the civil lawsuit, said 234th Civil Court Judge Lauren Reeder ordered Njunuri on Thursday to identify two pieces of art that would be worth $1 million — enough to satisfy the judgment — over the next two weeks. If he cannot, the judge ordered him to inventory every piece of the collection with an appraiser, Walker said.
Although it is frustrating that the sale was postponed again, Walker said he thought “this is better than just auctioning everything off.”
Jim James and his 15-year-old son, Buck, drove about two hours Thursday morning from College Station.
The two are African art enthusiasts and enjoy collecting pieces here and there, and thought they might be able to buy a few pieces off the lucky auction winner.
After seeing the art in person, James said he was happy to hear the auction was postponed. Next time, he may bring more money in his wallet.
“There’s some really intricate pieces in there,” he said. “You can really see the beauty.”
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