The Quebec government announced an external investigation will be conducted into the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA) dismissal of the museum’s director general, Nathalie Bondil.
Culture and Communications Minister Nathalie Roy said on Thursday she will commission an independent firm to look into the management team as well as the board of directors.
The minister said she made this decision in the wake of the allegations surrounding the dismissal of Bondil this week.
Roy also says to have been twice refused the human resources report on Bondil’s dismissal from the board of directors.
The provincial government said it has the right to ask questions and get answers on the management and governance of the MMFA and its board of directors, stressing that it gives $16 million to the museum per year — making it the institution’s biggest donator.
Bondil says she was fired from her job as director general and chief curator of the MMFA because she challenged certain decisions made by the board, and not because she created a toxic work climate as claimed by the museum’s board of directors when announcing her dismissal on Monday.
In a statement released by the MMFA on Thursday, chair of the board Michel de la Cheneliere said the museum will fully cooperate with the minister and the independent firm’s investigation into the matter.
“We nonetheless remain convinced that the decision to terminate Ms. Bondil’s contract was the right decision,” said de la Cheneliere.
–With files from Global News’ Alessia Maratta