The Hartford institution is under a cloud of questions about its financial state after its third director in the past ten years departed. A Connecticut newspaper has tried to check out the rumors. But “despite repeated requests from the Journal Inquirer over the last month, a spokeswoman for the private not-for-profit corporation, Linda Richardson, said Tuesday that neither she nor any member of the museum’s 31-person board of trustees would respond to some patrons’ concerns that the museum appears to be in dire straits.”