The Philadelphia Art Museum has filed serious allegations against its former Canadian director, Sasha Suda, accusing her of stealing funds through unauthorized salary increases and then lying to cover up her actions. The museum's court filings describe her wrongful dismissal lawsuit as "meritless and delusional," arguing that it had legitimate cause to terminate her five-year employment agreement early.
The museum is seeking to move the legal dispute into confidential arbitration rather than the jury trial requested by Suda, who was born in Orillia, Ontario. She is demanding two years of severance pay and additional damages following her abrupt dismissal. According to the court documents, Suda had negotiated an annual salary of $720,000 when she signed her agreement in June 2022, a significant increase from the approximately $147,000 she earned as director of the National Gallery of Canada.
The museum's petition, filed on November 20, alleges that Suda was explicitly told not to expect additional compensation beyond her agreed salary. Despite this warning, she repeatedly approached the board's compensation committee seeking approval for pay increases, which were consistently denied. The museum claims that Suda proceeded to take the additional money anyway, directly violating the terms of her employment contract.
Suda's legal team has pushed back strongly against these allegations. In her lawsuit filed on November 10, she claims she was terminated following what she describes as a "sham investigation" into pre-approved expenses and a standard three percent cost-of-living adjustment that was consistent with normal practice. Her legal filing states that this salary adjustment amounted to $39,000 spread over two years.
Luke Nikas, a partner with the New York law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP representing Suda, dismissed the museum's account as false in an emailed statement. He accused the institution of attempting to "hide the sordid details about its unlawful treatment of Sasha Suda in a confidential arbitration." Nikas argued that if the museum had nothing to conceal, it would not be afraid to litigate in state court where they originally filed the case.
Suda's tenure at the Philadelphia Art Museum ended abruptly on November 4, when the institution released a brief statement announcing that she was no longer serving as director and CEO. The museum's petition alleges that an extensive investigation, assisted by the former acting U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, found evidence that Suda misappropriated funds and lied to conceal her actions, thereby violating her employment agreement.
The museum's filing takes an aggressive tone against Suda's claims, characterizing her lawsuit as containing "delusional allegations of victimhood and persecution." The document states that "Suda has compounded this self-inflicted damage by filing a public complaint laden with false, dishonest, and irrelevant allegations in a baseless attempt to blame others for her misconduct." The museum further alleges that her strategy is transparent: "she hopes that by publicizing false allegations against the museum and its directors, officers, and employees, the museum will be extorted into awarding her a severance she has no right to receive."
Before joining the National Gallery of Canada in 2019 as director and CEO, Suda had established herself in the art world as curator of European art and held the Elliott Chair of Prints & Drawings at the Art Gallery of Ontario. Her career trajectory had been closely watched in Canadian cultural circles, making her recent legal troubles particularly notable within the international museum community.
Neither the allegations made by the Philadelphia Art Museum nor those presented in Suda's wrongful dismissal lawsuit have been tested or verified in court. The museum has declined to provide any additional comments beyond what was included in their court filings, while the legal battle continues to unfold in the Pennsylvania court system.
