Earlier this month, Sasha Suda, the previous director and CEO of the Philadelphia Museum of Artwork, filed a civil swimsuit towards the establishment, alleging wrongful termination, unfair remedy, and abuse. On Thursday, the museum filed its response.
In a brand new movement to compel arbitration, the museum denied Suda’s claims and asserted that the 12-member Govt Committee voted unanimously to terminate her for trigger following “an in depth investigation.” That investigation, the movement states, concluded that Suda had “misappropriated funds from the Museum and lied to cowl up her theft.”
The submitting additional claims that Suda “repeatedly requested the Compensation Committee” for raises above her agreed-upon $720,000 annual wage and, after being denied, “awarded herself the wage enhance the Committee had simply declined,” allegedly doing so on three separate events with out informing the board. In September, in line with the movement, the committee found these will increase, prompting the formation of a particular board committee to research, assisted by exterior counsel.
“After reviewing the proof and evaluating their fiduciary duties to the Museum, the Govt Committee decided that the proof overwhelmingly established that Suda violated her Settlement by misappropriating Museum funds and fascinating in repeated acts of dishonesty,” the movement states.
The museum’s movement additionally contends that Suda’s employment contract requires all claims to be resolved by means of “personal, confidential arbitration.” An employment settlement hooked up to the submitting contains that clause. Suda’s grievance argues that she is entitled to litigate in courtroom beneath the “injunctive reduction” exception within the settlement. The museum denies the applicability of that exception.
In an emailed assertion, the museum confirmed it had filed the petition however declined additional remark.
Luke Nikas, a lawyer for Suda, instructed ARTnews through electronic mail that the museum’s allegations are false. “These are the identical recycled allegations from the sham investigation that the Museum manufactured as a pretext for Suda’s wrongful termination,” he wrote.
“The movement, in addition to its false narrative, suits the Philadelphia Museum’s longstanding sample of making an attempt to cowl up its misconduct and mistreatment of employees,” Nikas continued. “We anticipated the Museum would favor to cover the sordid particulars about its illegal remedy of Sasha Suda in a confidential arbitration. If the Museum had nothing to cover, it could not be afraid to litigate in state courtroom the place we filed the case.”
Suda joined the museum in 2022 after serving as director and CEO of the Nationwide Gallery of Canada. Her tenure there was described as “marked by controversy” by Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail. Shortly after taking the submit in 2019, Suda led what the newspaper referred to as a “wholesale reimagining” of the establishment geared toward correcting “historic wrongs.” The Globe and Mail estimated that 30 to 40 employees members, together with a number of senior leaders, left the museum beneath her management.
On the Philadelphia Museum of Artwork, Suda additionally confronted challenges. The museum had just lately weathered a scandal involving then director Timothy Rub, who was accused of mishandling sexual harassment complaints. When Suda arrived, the museum was within the midst of an extended and acrimonious negotiation with unionized employees, who started placing shortly after her tenure started.
