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Testimony of a collector who bought a sculpture by Henry Munyaradzi which turned out to be a fake

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Here is the testimony of a collector who bought a sculpture by Henry Munyaradzi which turned out to be a fake. I live in Paris and I have been collecting Shona sculptures from Zimbabwe for about fifteen years. I write this article, not to settle accounts, nor to denounce anyone, nor to obtain something, but to alert collectors and encourage them to be vigilant. In November 2008, I bought a sculpture from an American gallery: ****** Gallery. The purchase was made by internet on photos. It is a piece signed Henry Munyaradzi, a first generation artist, recognized and exhibited all over the world. The title is "Protecting owl", carved in black serpentine, signed "Henry" under the base, 52 cm high, 25 cm wide, sold for $900 and comes with a certificate of authenticity. I received my owl and I lived happily with it until September 2022 when I read several articles on the internet which are concerned about the proliferation on the market of fake sculptures from Zimbabwe re...
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First generation Shona sculptors scam (Zimbabwe)

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Introduction This is the story of how I fell prey to a scam of people in Zimbabwe selling fake first generation sculptures, most notably Sailot William Ziira (also known as Sailot Ziira), the grandson from the famous sculptor Henry Munyaradzi, and Taguma Andrew Mukomberanwa (also known as Taguma Mukomberanwa), the son from the famous sculptor Nicholas Mukomberanwa. I have divided up the story in two parts, one about Sailot, and the second part about Taguma. These people are doing incredible damage to their heritage, and also to every sculptor in Zimbabwe as it undermines the trust. We need to collectively stop them. Please don't do any business with them. Sailot William Ziira / Sailot Ziira On Saturday September 11th 2021 I had my first contact with Sailot, after having been introduced to him by a sculptor I have known since 1999. This sculptor is also befriended with a buyer from USA, who got contacted by Sailot on Facebook about a white Zimbabwean collector named Ben Brumelaar se...
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