Ousted Art Museum chief Sasha Suda argues for a trial — not arbitration — in new court filing
Much of the new filing repeats the narrative laid out in the initial lawsuit, detailing Suda's power struggles with board members of the museum and her struggles to modernize the museum.
In another broadside against the board of the Philadelphia Art Museum, ousted director and CEO Sasha Suda has once again portrayed her difficulties at the museum as a struggle for modernizing an institution in the face of the status quo. A new court filing from Suda, filed on Thursday night, argues for a trial with jury rather than settling the dispute with the museum through arbitration.
The opposition brief, a response to the museum’s petition last month stating that the matter should be resolved in arbitration, says that Suda’s employment contract contained “an explicit exception” to the arbitration called for by the museum.
» READ MORE: Read Sasha Suda’s brief against the Philadelphia Art Museum’s petition last month
“The Court should therefore deny the museum’s motion and retain jurisdiction over this case — as the parties’ agreement and Pennsylvania law require,” states Thursday’s filing in Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas.
Suda, 45, was fired Nov. 4 for what the museum said was cause. Less than a week later, she filed a lawsuit against the museum claiming she was dismissed without a “valid basis.”
Suda’s lawyer, Luke Nikas, did not immediately comment on the matter Friday. The Art Museum had no comment on the new filing, an Art Museum spokesperson said.
Suda was dismissed after an investigation determined that she “misappropriated funds from the museum and lied to cover up her theft,” the museum alleged in a November court filing in response to her lawsuit.
Nikas, of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, at the time called the accusations false. The money in question, $39,000, came in the form of increases to Suda’s compensation, and these increases were “authorized” and “budgeted” cost-of-living increases that were “fully approved” and “disclosed,” a source close to Suda previously stated.
Much of the new filing repeats the narrative laid out in the initial lawsuit filing, detailing Suda’s unhappiness with former board chair Leslie Anne Miller and current board chair Ellen T. Caplan, as well as a recounting of Suda’s accomplishments at the museum.
Suda and Miller experienced ongoing friction, and Miller “told third parties that Suda was untrustworthy, incompetent, a snake, immature, would not last, and that others were ‘drinking the Kool-Aid’ by supporting her,’” the new filing states.
“Those comments from an officer and agent of the Museum violated the Employment Agreement’s Non-Disparagement Clause,” and that violation entitles Suda to “immediate injunctive relief and a temporary order restraining any threatened or further breach, in addition to or in place of the arbitration provisions,” the filing states.
Miller declined to comment on Friday.
Suda’s contract stipulates that any changes in her compensation would be determined at the “sole and absolute discretion” of the compensation committee. In its November petition, the museum said that Suda requested, and was denied, a salary increase from the compensation committee on Feb. 8, 2024. She then “awarded herself the salary increase” effective March 1, 2024, followed by a second “unauthorized” increase in July of that year, the petition claims.
In July 2025, according to the museum’s petition, Suda “awarded herself a third unauthorized pay increase, which she once again failed to disclose to the board.”
The new filing includes text messages of praise and encouragement from board member John Alchin. It says that in September 2023, Alchin — identified in the filing as chair of the finance committee — examined a draft report for a compensation subcommittee meeting and requested “schedules of salaries along with proposed/recent salary increases.”
“Suda’s compensation was also reviewed,” the filing states.
“As the board member with the most oversight of Suda’s financials, Alchin expressed no concerns about Suda’s approach to salary schedules or financial governance, which were discussed openly in committee meetings,” the filing states.
It provides a copy of an August 2025 letter from the museum to Suda outlining her annual salary increase, from $749,087 to $771,560. The letter is not signed by a specific person — only the museum’s human resources department — and was cc-ed to “finance.”
The new filing also includes 2023 correspondence from the museum’s CFO, Katherine Harper, to its HR director, Meredith Clayton, “trying to figure out what increase Sasha might be entitled to,” adding that “prior to finalizing, I will check with John Alchin or Leslie to make sure they are comfortable.”
Suda was in the third year of a five-year contract when she was dismissed in the beginning of November.
On Dec. 1, she was succeeded by veteran nonprofit administrator Daniel H. Weiss, former chief of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, who had already been engaged by the museum as a consultant prior to being named director and CEO.