A museum director slapped, punched, pinched, shoved, grabbed, and verbally berated workers and was allowed to keep his job for two years, even after staffers reported the abuse.
James A. Cincotta, the former retail director at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, was routinely abusive, say 14 current and former museum employees who have come forward with the allegations.
Some staffers admitted that there were times they thought he was playfully joking when he lashed out, but there were other times he wasn’t.
James A. Cincotta, the former retail director at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, was routinely abusive, say 14 current and former museum employees who have come forward with the allegations
Cincotta, 57, was investigated in 2016 for slapping a 20-something gift shop worker on the back of her head, bringing the woman to tears, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.
The woman quit the next day, and Cincotta, despite an investigation, was allowed to remain on the job for another two years, reports the Inquirer.
The allegations were brought up last month during a staff meeting at the museum held to assure employees, after Joshua Helmer, another former director accused of misconduct, had resigned.
Museum Art Director and CEO Timothy Rub had called the meeting to say the institution takes seriously complaints of harassment within the workplace.
That’s when staffers at the meeting began asking why Cincotta’s alleged misbehavior was allowed to go on for so long.
Cincotta, who was let go from the museum in 2018, did not immediately respond when DailyMail.com reached out.
A museum spokesman confirmed Cincotta’s departure from the museum on June 18, 2018, but declined to elaborate because of confidentiality reasons regarding personnel matters, the Inquirer reports.
Cincotta had been with the museum since 2015, overseeing its gift shops and its retail stock at an annual salary of $161,000, making him one of the institution’s highest-paid employees, according to its tax filings.
His LinkedIn page reports that he achieved ‘pivotal strategic elements,’ while at the museum, including ‘producing a profitable enterprise, cleaning up the balance sheet (inventory), restructuring the organization, bringing all technology into the 21st century, building a new e-commerce business, and creating a redesign and new architectural drawings for future stores’.
Staffers who spoke with the Inquirer say they suspect he was allowed to continue in his job, despite the allegations, because museum leadership was pleased with his work.
The Philadelphia Museum of Art (pictured) was famously featured in a training montage in Sylvester Stallone’s 1976 Oscar-winning film ‘Rocky’
Staffers at the Philadelphia Museum of Art raised questions about Cincotta’s continued employment after reports surfaced about another former director, Joshua Helmer, (pictured) who resigned after he faced unrelated accusations of misconduct
Nine former and current workers said they experienced or saw Cincotta grab, hit and slap staffers. Ten current and former employees said they reported physical or verbal abuse to human resources.
Three workers said they lost their jobs after reporting Cincotta, and were suspicious that their complaints triggered the termination.
His management style, say people who worked for Cincotta, included threats of firing workers, shouting at people for making mistakes, and mocking those who stood up to the director.
Some employees admitted they were unsure how to react when Cincotta physically struck people, because he usually behaved like he was kidding.
A man allegedly slapped in the face by Cincotta, who was his boss, at an after-hours event said he delayed reporting the incident because he thought it had been done ‘playfully’.
Marianne Brown, who worked in retail and left in 2016, told the Inquirer that Cincotta regularly punched co-workers in the arm during morning meetings, and once even left a male colleague bruised.
Consultant Julie Lederman, who worked for the museum’s wholesale operation in 2015, told the Inquirer that Cincotta would sneak up to her while she was seated at a desk, pinch the side of her thigh and laugh.
She said she asked him five times to stop before she reported the pinching to human resources, along with other inappropriate behavior.
‘I told them that all the complaints they were getting about James were real,’ she said. ‘I said, ‘You need to take this stuff seriously. People are getting physically harmed and verbally tortured.’ ‘
A man who worked in shipping complained he saw Cincotta punch colleagues on the arm and whack them on the back.
In 2016, the worker said he shared some good news with Cincotta, who responded by hitting him in the chest with both hands in a celebratory gesture, knocking the wind out of him.
‘I was like, ”What the hell was that?”’ the worker, Sean McBride said. ‘We’re not at a bar, we’re not at a fraternity, we’re not buddies, and we’re not watching a football game. We’re there to work. This is a store. In a museum.’
McBride eventually reported the incident and handed in notes he took on Cincotta’s behavior. He said he then later learned his position was being cut, and that Cincotta blamed the museum, saying it was eliminating ‘deadweight’.
The incident involving the gift shop worker slapped on the back of the head happened a year into Cincotta’s tenure at the museum. A worker in the room claimed she heard the museum director speaking angrily, and then a loud slapping sound.
When she turned, she saw the woman in tears, reports the Inquirer.
Another worker recalled seeing the woman crying as Cincotta yelled in her face. She did not respond to a request for comment, reports the Inquirer.
Two employees told the news outlet that she had reported the story to them, and three former workers say they witnessed the aftermath.
One of them, Francesca Savini said she was at work when she heard about what had happened and asked the woman if she wanted to report it to authorities.
‘She was crying and shaking,’ Savini said. ‘She said, “I just want to go home.”‘
Eric Davidson, who was managing the gift shop, said when he learned Cincotta ‘hit somebody in the head,’ he rushed to the scene and the woman recounted what had happened.
The woman let the job and never returned. Davidson said he made a report to HR and that an investigation was launched. Cincotta, meanwhile, continued to work.
‘For a long time, nothing happens,’ Davidson said. ‘How does somebody hit someone, and everybody knows, and nothing happens?’
An HR official brought up the complaints at a retail department meeting that spring, and said Cincotta would remain at his job.
‘I said, ‘What are we supposed to do when he hits someone again?’ ‘ said Savini, who soon parted ways with the museum shortly after. She added that the human resources official had, ‘brushed us off. She was very dismissive’.
Six people who were at the meeting said the HR official claimed the allegations were unsubstantiated, however, that Cincotta would undergo sensitivity training.
‘I can’t remember if she said the words that we should ‘move on,’ but that was definitely the gist of what was said,’ McBride said.
‘After that, we knew HR wasn’t there to help us’.
Brown reported Cincotta to human resources after he started asking her to drive him places, she said. Then in August 2016 she said she learned that her job was being eliminated, and was offered another museum position at a significant pay cut.
She was 60 at the time and had believed she would work at the museum until retirement. Instead, she quit.
Staffers said they weren’t told why Cincotta left the museum in 2018. He has since been enrolled in a business analytics course at Harvard, according to LinkedIn.
However, he joined a board at Collab, which brings in donations to the museum, and remained present at the institution’s meetings and events.
Those who assumed he had lost his job because of the allegations made against him said they were shocked to see Cincotta back.
Last fall, two museum employees alerted HR when they spotted him in the building.
An email sent by a museum educator to security in November, reports the Inquirer, described him as a ‘known threat to those working here’.
Several staffers said they believe the museum finally banned Cincotta from returning after reports of inappropriate behavior surfaced about a former assistant director, Joshua R. Helmer, who resigned but would face similar allegations while working as director of the Erie Art Museum in Erie, where he is still employed.