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\n\tBrady Lum, former chief operating officer at Atlanta\u2019s High Museum of Art, pleaded guilty on Monday to a federal charge of theft. Lum \u201cpilfered more than $600,000 from the museum by doctoring invoices and approving transactions for personal purchases,\u201d says an announcement from the Justice Department.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cOver several years, Lum deceptively plundered the southeast\u2019s premier museum of visual art, embezzling more than half a million dollars,\u201d said US Attorney Theodore S. Hertzberg in the announcement. \u201cCriminals like Lum who steal from institutions that receive taxpayer money to serve the public will face prison time for their thievery and be compelled to repay their ill-gotten gains.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tLum served in his post from 2019 until he resigned amid a probe in 2025, and was responsible for overseeing the museum\u2019s operational and financial activities. He repeatedly purchased non-business items and services for himself, says the Justice Department, including an expensive guitar and other musical equipment, personal music lessons, and woodworking equipment.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tTo cover up his theft, Lum submitted altered invoices, used his position to approve expenses, and used \u201caccounting adjustments to spread his expenses across different cost centers so that they would not be readily identified,\u201d says the Department. For example, he submitted more than $9,000 in costs for a guitar and related accessories but made the invoice look as though it pertained to purchases for the institution\u2019s benefit. Lum received more than 700 reimbursements, most of them for less than $1,000, says the Justice Department.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cAs he admitted in court, Brady Lum breached the trust of his organization and undermined the integrity of the museum,\u201d said Marlo Graham, Special Agent in Charge of FBI Atlanta. \u201cThe FBI remains unwavering in its pursuit to hold accountable those who exploit their positions for selfish purposes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tA sentencing hearing is scheduled for November 2. As part of a plea agreement, Lum will pay full restitution to the museum.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tLocated on Peachtree Street in Midtown Atlanta, the High Museum is the largest museum for visual art in the Southeast and is a division of the Richard Meier\u2013designed Woodruff Arts Center, which also includes the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Alliance Theatre. Its collection includes more than 20,300 artworks and spans areas including African art, American art, European art, and modern and contemporary art. In fiscal year 2025, the museum reported some $30.8 million in revenues, up from just shy of $30 million the year previous, and net assets without donor restrictions of $11.2 million, up from just less than $11 million.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/GettyImages-464571726.jpg?w=1024″] Brady Lum, former chief operating officer at Atlanta\u2019s High Museum of Art, pleaded guilty on Monday to a federal charge of theft. Lum \u201cpilfered more than $600,000 from the museum by doctoring invoices and approving transactions for personal purchases,\u201d says an announcement from the Justice Department.\u00a0 \u201cOver several years, Lum deceptively plundered […]<\/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-2042660","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\/2042660","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=2042660"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2042660\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2042660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2042660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2042660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}