Art Museum’s former HR, DEI director charged with theft after police said she put $58k in personal expenses on company card
Police say Latasha Harling, the art museum's former chief people and diversity officer, spent more than $58,000 in personal expenses on a company credit card and failed to pay it back.
The former head of human resources and diversity initiatives for the Philadelphia Art Museum was charged with theft earlier this year. The police said she racked up more than $58,000 in personal expenses on a company credit card, then failed to pay back the funds, court records show.
Latasha Harling, 43, was arrested in July and charged with theft by unlawful taking, theft by deception, and related crimes about six months after she quietly resigned from her job as the chief people and diversity officer for the museum.
The charges against Harling — which had not previously been reported or made public by the museum — are the latest chapter in a six-week stretch of turbulence for the prominent institution, and raise new questions about the financial oversight and controls of its senior executives.
On Nov. 4, the museum fired its director and CEO, Sasha Suda, after an investigation by an outside law firm flagged the handling of her compensation. Suda filed a lawsuit on Nov. 10 against her former employer claiming that she was the victim of a “small cabal” from the board that commissioned a “sham investigation” as a “pretext” for her “unlawful dismissal.”
The Art Museum on Thursday responded to the lawsuit in Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas with a petition saying Suda was dismissed after an investigation determined that she “misappropriated funds from the museum and lied to cover up her theft.” Her lawyer, Luke Nikas of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, called the museum’s accusations false.
“These are the same recycled allegations from the sham investigation that the museum manufactured as a pretext for Suda’s wrongful termination,” he said.
Harling declined to comment on the charges filed against her Friday, as did her lawyers at the Defender Association. A spokesperson for the Philadelphia Art Museum also declined to comment on the matter.
Harling was hired by the museum as a senior member of its executive staff in November 2023, according to her LinkedIn profile. In that role, she oversaw human resources for the museum, implemented policies to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion, and managed budgetary responsibilities, among other duties, per her profile.
As part of her job, Harling had access to a corporate credit card for business-related expenses, according to the affidavit of probable cause for her arrest.
In January 2025, museum staff noticed that Harling’s December credit card statement contained “several large, and apparently personal expenses,” the affidavit said.
The museum’s chief financial officer conducted an audit and found that, over the course of Harling’s tenure, she charged $58,885.98 in personal expenses to the company’s credit card, the document said. She had not filed an expense report since July 2024, according to the affidavit.
Museum officials confronted Harling about the charges in January, the filing said, and proposed that she repay $32,565.42. She resigned from her role soon after “without resolution,” according to the affidavit.
The museum continued to negotiate with Harling, and in February, she signed a promissory note agreeing to pay back $19,380.21 over the course of three months that spring, the record said.
But in April, per the filing, a lawyer for the museum contacted the police to say that two months had passed and Harling had not repaid any of the funds. They said that, according to their agreement, she should have paid back about $13,000 by then.
After the museum provided investigators with copies of their emails with Harling, her expenses, and its travel and expense policy, prosecutors agreed to charge her with theft.
The case remains ongoing in Philadelphia’s criminal court.
Staff writer Jillian Kramer contributed to this article.