A federal judge in Atlanta sentenced the former chief operating officer of the High Museum of Art to one year in prison and one year of supervised release this week, for stealing more than $600,000 from the museum over six years to fund a private collection of guitars.
Brady Lum, 60, served as the High Museum's COO from January 2019 until he resigned in December 2025. According to the US Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Georgia, which prosecuted the case, he began siphoning museum funds in September 2019 — about nine months into the job — and kept doing so until November 2025, when the theft was discovered.
Guitars, Lessons and Altered Invoices
Prosecutors said Lum used the stolen money to buy "non-business items and services for himself, including expensive guitars and other music equipment, personal music lessons, and woodworking equipment," funneling the purchases through direct supplier invoicing and the museum's corporate credit card reimbursement system. He is accused of covering his tracks by submitting altered invoices, approving his own expenses, and spreading the costs across different accounting lines so no single budget looked out of place. Prosecutors have previously cited one example, from November 2024, in which Lum submitted an invoice reflecting a roughly $9,100 purchase for "museum use" that was actually for a high-end guitar and accessories.
Lum brazenly pilfered hundreds of thousands of dollars from a beloved civic institution to pay for his high-end guitars and other personal items. His appalling breach of trust damaged not only the High Museum but also the larger art community.
Theodore S. Hertzberg, US Attorney, Northern District of Georgia
Lum pleaded guilty in July, and by the time of this week's sentencing he had repaid the full $607,688.18 he admitted taking, plus a further $500,000 to cover the museum's legal and investigative costs. "Lum repaid the High Museum by covering its losses and expenses, and now he will pay his debt to society from prison," Hertzberg added. A request for comment from the High Museum was not immediately returned.
Embezzlement cases at nonprofit museums are not unheard of, and insurers that cover arts institutions have long flagged weak separation of financial duties as a recurring vulnerability — particularly at mid-sized organizations where one senior executive can both initiate and approve payments. As the High Museum's chief operating officer, Lum oversaw procurement and day-to-day finance for most of his six-year tenure, giving him exactly that kind of unchecked authority until an internal review finally caught the pattern.
