Salvador Salort-Pons, director of the Detroit Institute of Arts, is at the center of a host of accusations — a charge of nepotism involving the loans of artwork, and allegations regarding his management style, hiring practices and racial mistreatment of current and former staffers, reports the New York Times and the Detroit News.

A DIA Staff Action group accuses Salort-Pons of cultivating a toxic work environment, one that is unfriendly to people of color. The group posted a call on Twitter for Salort-Pons to "be removed from his role as director, president & chief executive officer and any other involvement at the (museum) by Aug. 31, 2020."

In an essay on medium.com former staff member Andrea Montiel de Shuman writes: "In the past couple of years, the institution has been reshaped into a form that many of us cannot recognize — it is a contradictory, hostile, at times vicious and chaotic work environment," directed by "leadership that has fostered a totalitarian, oligarchic system."

First reported by the New York Times, a nepotism charge concerns the loans of El Greco's painting St. Francis Receiving the Stigmata and (loaned earlier) a painting attributed to the circle of Nicolas Poussin, An Allegory of Autumn, to the DIA by Salort-Pons' father-in-law, Alan M. May, a retired developer in Dallas. Former DIA director Graham Beal told the Times, “The loan(s) from Alan May was/were totally above board and benefited the DIA as much, if not more, than the lender.”

A whistle-blower complaint has reportedly been filed about the El Greco with the Michigan Attorney General, as well as the Internal Revenue Service, alleging violation of conflict-of-interest laws.