Recently Ousted Director of Philadelphia Art Museum Sues Over Her Dismissal

The former director of the Philadelphia Art Museum, who was abruptly fired last week, filed a lawsuit on Monday asserting that she was dismissed after a “corrupt and unethical faction” of the museum’s board objected to her efforts at modernization.

In her lawsuit, which was filed in Pennsylvania state court, the former director, Sasha Suda, contends that she was fired “without a valid basis” after negotiations over the terms of her departure with the museum’s board of trustees had reached an impasse.

The board said last week that she had been fired for cause. Ms. Suda’s complaint requests a jury trial, where she would seek two years’ worth of severance pay, damages and other relief.

“Ms. Suda fought for and believed in a museum that would serve Philadelphia and its people, not the egos of a handful of trustees,” said her lawyer, Luke Nikas, of the firm Quinn Emanuel. “She is proud of her work and looks forward to presenting the truth.”

The museum declined to comment on the lawsuit on Monday. In a statement last week after Ms. Suda had been dismissed, the museum said, “The board of trustees is focused on fulfilling the museum’s mission as we enter our 150th year.”

For an industry that usually handles such disputes behind closed doors, the lawsuit offers a rare look at a newcomer’s joining one of the country’s most important, if troubled, institutions. Amid the fallout from the clash, five trustees said the 149-year-old museum’s credibility was now at risk.

Within the last week, speculation has swirled about the reasons for Ms. Suda’s termination. Some reports suggested it might have resulted from a rebranding campaign that began without final approval from trustees and earned a derisive nickname from the public, “PhArt,” short for the institution’s new name, the Philadelphia Art Museum. (It had been known as the Philadelphia Museum of Art.)

Others have proposed that Ms. Suda’s firing arose from board members’ displeasure with her emphasis on diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

But in Ms. Suda’s lawsuit, she claims that she was forced out after clashing with members of the board.

And in interviews last week with The New York Times, the five trustees, who requested anonymity to discuss internal matters freely, said the dismissal resulted from a power struggle between Ms. Suda, 45, and board leaders who came to believe she was too inexperienced to run one of the country’s largest museums.

In her lawsuit, Ms. Suda claims that her opponents on the board tried to portray her as “misusing museum funds for personal gain.” The suit says that this year a compensation committee of six trustees hired a law firm to conduct an investigation into Ms. Suda’s compensation and expenses, which the legal complaint said had been budgeted for and approved by the museum.

According to the lawsuit, the investigation concluded that she had been financially irresponsible and recommended that she be given the opportunity to resign.

Ms. Suda’s lawsuit says she was offered little recourse to defend herself, and her complaint contends that a $39,000 cost-of-living adjustment she received over two years was in line with the museum’s union contract and that a similar adjustment was given to managers. (According to a 2024 tax filing, her total compensation in 2023 was roughly $760,000 — comparable to or below that of leaders at other museums of similar size.)

Ms. Suda, who was born in Toronto, became the institution’s director and its chief executive in 2022. Before arriving in Philadelphia, she was the youngest director ever to lead the National Gallery of Canada.

According to her lawsuit, after Ms. Suda had started at the museum, she was blocked from viewing a “cultural assessment” of the institution, which the board had commissioned in the wake of several misconduct allegations from employees.

Ms. Suda was told “to look forward, not backward” by Osagie Imasogie, the board’s vice chair and one of the trustees overseeing the museum’s diversity efforts, the lawsuit contends.

Ms. Suda initially had a difficult relationship with employees. She started her first day by entering through the back door of the museum because unionized employees were striking out front amid contract negotiations.

But some workers and trustees felt as if she had begun to stabilize the situation. Some praised her commitments to diversity and programming like “The Time Is Always Now,” an exhibition featuring contemporary Black artists that opened in November 2024.

Visitors were slowly returning after the coronavirus pandemic, and Ms. Suda raised millions of dollars for the institution. According to the lawsuit, in the roughly three years she served of her five-year contract, she cut the $6 million deficit that she inherited by two-thirds, and she exceeded the $15.9 million fund-raising goal for this fiscal year, raising $16.7 million.

Some of the trustees said they believed her sudden departure could imperil the museum’s financial standing and jeopardize the gifts promised from donors who had supported her vision for the institution’s future.

In her lawsuit, Ms. Suda claims that the “final straw” came over a dispute concerning a lobbyist named Melissa Heller, whom the board chair, Ellen Caplan, wanted to recruit as a trustee.

“Suda found Heller abrasive and told Caplan she was not a cultural fit for a board that needed collaboration and stability,” the lawsuit says. “Caplan disagreed and pushed Heller through the process anyway, later accusing Suda of being the unpleasant one.”

Ms. Suda’s lawsuit also contends that Ms. Caplan later attempted “a coup” by rallying a minority of board members — “about six of 70” — to oppose her initiatives. On two occasions this year, the museum’s executive committee held votes of confidence on Ms. Suda’s leadership, according to the lawsuit. The first vote was in favor of her, 8-2, with only Ms. Caplan and Mr. Imasogie opposing.

Ms. Heller, Ms. Caplan and Mr. Imasogie did not immediately reply to requests for comment on Monday.

After the investigation into Ms. Suda’s compensation and expenses, the lawsuit says, the vote flipped against her and she was asked to resign. She says she learned of the decision as she was hosting an event at the museum with leaders from the Pompidou Center, the Tate museums and the National Gallery in Washington.

The lawsuit also says that the museum proposed a severance package that would have left Ms. Suda, a Canadian national, without a source of income to qualify for a green card beginning in January. “This would give Suda 60 days to leave the country where she resides with her family and where her children attend elementary school,” the lawsuit says.

According to the lawsuit, the negotiations concerning her departure ultimately fell apart over the signing of nondisparagement and confidentiality agreements, which Ms. Suda contends favored the museum.

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