This story has it all

August 6, 2024 9:32 AM

Judge Orders Part of African Art Collection Discovered in Houston Shed Sold to Settle Debt Mysterious smuggled art, evil landlord, embezzlement of civic funds,and bankruptcy.
posted by bq (4 comments total)

"Njunuri has admitted to owning some of the artworks and has testified under oath that a portion of the collection may have been stolen."

The words "some" and "may" are probably doing some heavy lifting in that sentence.
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 11:30 AM on August 6 [3 favorites]

Does the FBI not regard stolen artwork as a federal crime?
posted by JustSayNoDawg at 11:57 AM on August 6

Having grown up in Houston, and knowing a bit about politics there to this day, the involvement of Harris County Commissioner Rodney Ellis is fascinating to me.
posted by gentlyepigrams at 1:45 PM on August 6 [1 favorite]

Going by this story, the reason Ellis wasn't indicted is that Texas has extremely lax laws about spending public funds, apparently as long as they don't personally profit elected officials can spend them how they like.

The initial auction set up sounded weird, too. "the entire trove of around 1,400 pieces was set to be offered as a single lot with a starting bid of $4,400." That definitely doesn't sound like the way to maximize the value and thus compensate the tenants.
posted by tavella at 2:18 PM on August 6 [2 favorites]