[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/2236162060-e1776205314637.jpg?w=1024″]<\/p>\n
\n\tBrady Lum, the former chief operating officer of Atlanta\u2019s High Museum of Art, entered a not guilty plea Tuesday to a federal theft charge stemming from allegations that he misappropriated museum funds.<\/p>\n
\n\tIn February, news broke that Lum, 59, had resigned from his position in December after an internal investigation at the museum concluded that Lum was responsible for misappropirating $600,000 over several years. The institution referred the matter to federal prosecutors. <\/p>\n
\n\tOn Tuesday, during Lum\u2019s arraignment in federal court in Atlanta, the US Attorney\u2019s Office for the Northern District of Georgia accused Lum of manipulating financial records and authorizing illegitimate purchases for his personal benefit, including high-end musical instruments, private lessons, and workshop equipment.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cWhile entrusted to run the High Museum, Lum allegedly used the museum\u2019s money as his personal slush fund and thereby betrayed one of Atlanta\u2019s civic crown jewels,\u201d US Attorney Theodore S. Hertzberg said in a statement. \u201cOur office will move with swift precision to prosecute individuals who abuse positions of power and trust to enrich themselves at the expense of non-profit institutions.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tAccording to the indictment, Lum masked his unauthorized expenditures by submitting \u201caltered invoices,\u201d then used his position to \u201cexercise delegated expense approval authority\u201d and then used \u201caccounting adjustments to spread his expenses across different cost centers.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tDuring Tuesday\u2019s hearing, Lum told the judge he is currently unemployed and was ordered to seek employment while on bond. Lum\u2019s attorney Don Samuel told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution<\/em> that Lum had nothing to say about the case at this time.<\/p>\n \n\tThe charges follow an internal investigation launched by the Woodruff Arts Center, which oversees the High Museum along with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Alliance Theatre. In February, the organization\u2019s board voted to refer the matter to federal prosecutors after the probe uncovered the alleged financial irregularities.<\/p>\n \n\tWoodruff Arts Center President and CEO Hala Moddelmog previously told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution<\/em> that the organization believes Lum acted alone and that the alleged theft would not impact museum operations. The High Museum remains financially stable, she said.<\/p>\n \n\tLum served as COO from January 2019 until his December 2025 resignation. According to the Woodruff Arts Center\u2019s 2024 Form 990, he earned $312,374 that fiscal year, making him the organization\u2019s fifth-highest-paid employee.<\/p>\n \n\tThe High Museum, located on Atlanta\u2019s Peachtree Street, is the largest visual arts museum in the Southeast. <\/p>\n \n\tA trial date has not yet been scheduled.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/art-news\/news\/high-museum-coo-pleads-not-guilty-federal-theft-charges-1234781188\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/2236162060-e1776205314637.jpg?w=1024″] Brady Lum, the former chief operating officer of Atlanta\u2019s High Museum of Art, entered a not guilty plea Tuesday to a federal theft charge stemming from allegations that he misappropriated museum funds. In February, news broke that Lum, 59, had resigned from his position in December after an internal investigation at the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,226],"class_list":["post-1883124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-artnews-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1883124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1883124"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1883124\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1883124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1883124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1883124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}