Brady Lum, the former chief operating officer of Atlanta's High Museum of Art, has been sentenced to a year in federal prison for diverting more than $600,000 of museum money toward his own purchases. Judge Michael L. Brown handed down the sentence on Monday, 2 November, ordering twelve months behind bars followed by a year of supervised release. Lum, who is 60, had already repaid the full sum before the hearing, along with roughly $500,000 to cover the museum's investigation and legal costs.

Prosecutors said the scheme began in September 2019, less than nine months after Lum took up the post on 2 January that year, and ran until museum leaders uncovered it in November 2025. He used his control over the institution's operations and finances to buy guitars and other music equipment, private music lessons and woodworking tools for himself, disguising the spending with doctored invoices, reimbursement claims and accounting adjustments that spread costs across different budgets. He resigned on 9 December 2025 and pleaded guilty in July to theft involving programmes that receive federal funds.

At the hearing, the judge dwelled on the deterrent purpose of the sentence, saying the court had a responsibility to discourage similar misconduct by others in positions of trust. He noted that he did not expect Lum to reoffend, but also observed that repayment made only after being caught carries less weight than voluntarily returning funds before detection. Lum addressed the court, apologised and spoke of disappointing his family and community, before a gallery largely filled with relatives, friends and supporters.

The case lands as the High marks its centenary and its parent body, the Woodruff Arts Center, pursues a major corporate fundraising drive. The Woodruff said it respected the court's decision and remained focused on its mission and on managing its resources responsibly. Both organisations declined to give details of the financial safeguards introduced since the fraud came to light, or to say whether they would publish a plan setting out reforms to their controls and oversight.