When the Insectarium was evicted, the building’s owner found the property heavily damaged

The Philadelphia Insectarium and Butterfly Pavilion closed over the weekend, but the building that once housed it has been left with extensive damages.

Building owner Steven Rubin and his attorney Gary Lightman discovered the damages Tuesday, when the Sheriff’s Office executed a scheduled eviction on the property. When they entered, they found damage and vandalism throughout the building, Lightman said.

“It was like someone took a sledgehammer and broke all the urinals and toilets. They smashed every window and mirror in the property,” Lightman said. “There was feces and urine smells in the bathrooms. Trash was strewed about everywhere.”

Lightman said he plans to get an estimate on the damages done, and file a motion for sanctions against Insectarium CEO John Cambridge and the museum to have the property cleaned. He instructed his client to file a police report, but it was not immediately clear if one had been made. Police were at the building on Tuesday, but a police spokesperson had not yet seen the report.

The Insectarium, Lightman said, had a going out of business party following its closure Saturday, and maintained control of the property until the eviction.

As a result, Lightman said he believes Cambridge is responsible for the damages. Cambridge declined to comment on his alleged involvement, but said, “It doesn’t sound to me like any vandalism occurred. Seems more like it was appropriately redecorated.”

Insectarium founder and original owner Steve Kanya, who has been involved in a yearslong court battle over the property and was present the morning of the eviction, said its murals had been graffitied over, and paint was spilled throughout the building.

“Whatever they didn’t take out of the building, they destroyed,” Kanya said. “I was sick to my stomach.”

Lightman says he isn’t certain when the damages occurred. He showed up just before 9 a.m. Tuesday, and heard a window or mirror being smashed while he was outside waiting for the sheriff to give his client possession of the building.

“I heard two large crashes and yelled in, ‘Is everyone OK?’ he said. “But they didn’t answer me.”

Some of the items that were broken, such as antique cabinets, were the Insectarium’s property to destroy, Lightman said. But other items, such as bathroom fixtures and doors, were part of the building, and belonged to the property owner.

“It’s amazing,” Cambridge said. “[Rubin and Lightman] just caused the death of an entire butterfly pavilion and 7,000-square-foot tropical ecosystem. They’re pointing their fingers at a couple of chipped toilets.”

The eviction caps a court battle that began in 2017, when Rubin filed a foreclosure action against the Insectarium. In 1989, Kanya entered into a $350,000 mortgage agreement with Rubin’s late father, Milton, to buy the building at 8046 Frankford Ave.

Kanya testified that Cambridge forced him out of the business in 2016, and took control of the museum. Milton Rubin’s estate did not become aware of that change until the following year, and alleged that no mortgage payments had been made on the initial 1989 debt since the business changed hands.

In March, a Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas judge ordered a $928,000 foreclosure judgment against the Insectarium, and gave Rubin’s estate possession of the building.

Following the court’s order, the Insectarium filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, but its case was dismissed, and it received no protections. Cambridge is appealing the foreclosure, telling The Inquirer last week that the order was “senseless and unjust.”

Lightman said after the building is cleaned up and repaired, his client plans to sell it at a sheriff’s sale.