Chicago museum boss held by police after ‘drunkenly stripping on plane’ is welcomed back to $1million-a-year job

The Art Institute of Chicago announced that its director is expected to return to work after he was shockingly arrested for allegedly stripping down on a flight to Germany. 

James Rondeau is set to go back to work on Monday following an embarrassing display on a United Airlines flight to Munich from Chicago on April 18. 

Police were called as the flight landed following reports of Rondeau – the institute’s highest-paid employee, making over $1million in 2023 – stripping off his clothes after drinking alcohol and taking prescription medication. 

Rondeau, who has since been on ‘voluntary leave’ from the museum, released a statement apologizing for the incident. 

‘I deeply regret this incident and the impact it has had on the museum and me and on my colleagues,’ Rondeau said, according to the New York Times. 

‘I have dedicated the past 27 years of my professional career to the Art Institute and I am grateful to have the opportunity to continue furthering its mission.’ 

The museum began an independent investigation into the incident, and said at the time that it ‘takes this very seriously’.  

In a statement to the NYT on Thursday, the institute said that board leadership is ‘confident in James Rondeau’s leadership and ability to continue as the president and director’. 

Rondeau was appointed to the position in 2016 after he worked with the institution in 1998 as associate curator of contemporary art. 

A prominent collector, Pamela Joyner, stepped down from the board not two weeks ago to focus on other board in New York and San Francisco, she told the NYT. 

Joyner told the outlet she felt it inappropriate to weigh in Rondeau’s controversy, but said ‘that board has work ahead of it that I don’t have time to do effectively’.

She added that ‘any distraction is potentially challenging for an institution’.