Former LACMA Employee Sues Over 2025 Data Breach

(MENAFN- USA Art News) The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) faces a class-action lawsuit from a former employee, Adam Piron, alleging negligence in a July 2025 data breach. The complaint, filed in the Superior Court of the State of California on Tuesday, claims that sensitive visitor and employee information, including Social Security numbers, was compromised.

Piron, a 40-year-old resident of San Bernardino County who served as an assistant film curator at LACMA from 2018 to 2020, according to his LinkedIn, learned of the breach in June 2026. He asserts that the museum waited nearly a year to inform staff, preventing those affected from taking necessary precautions against fraud and mitigating potential damages. The lawsuit, reviewed by ARTnews, seeks unspecified damages and a court order for stronger security measures and transparent responses to future breaches.

According to the complaint, cybercriminals gained unauthorized access to a portion of LACMA's computer network from July 7 to 11, 2025, compromising personally identifiable information such as addresses, dates of birth, driver's license details, health insurance information, and financial account numbers. LACMA confirmed the suspicious activity in a statement posted to its website this past Monday, noting that an investigation in August 2025 identified the breach.

“By obtaining, collecting, using and deriving a benefit from the plaintiff's and class members' [personal information], LACMA assumed legal and equitable duties to those individuals to protect and safeguard that information from unauthorized access and intrusion,” the complaint reads. The museum stated,“We immediately began working with third-party cybersecurity experts to investigate and remediate that activity,” and added that law enforcement was notified. LACMA is also providing notification to affected individuals as required by law.

The museum, the largest art institution in the Western US with approximately 155,000 objects spanning six millennia, attracts over 1 million visitors annually, according to the lawsuit. Earlier this year, it opened its David Geffen Galleries to display its permanent collection, which ARTnews described as having the“potential to rewrite art history.” LACMA did not immediately respond to ARTnews's request for additional comment.

Source: ARTnews

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