Ross Finocchio
XPOSED: Ross Finocchio, respected NYU art professor (inset), was nabbed as a Peeping Tom (above) at a West Village boutique, cops say. (
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An accomplished NYU art-history professor — who has lectured at the Met and Sotheby’s — is a Peeping Tom who uses his iPhone to spy on young women in West Village boutique changing rooms, cops said.
Ross Finocchio, 34, video-recorded women trying on vintage clothes at Beacon’s Closet by entering a changing area, setting up his phone in a shoe, and sliding it under the partition into the next room, cops said.
The medieval-art expert pulled the move on two women — ages 26 and 28 — in two incidents, cops said.
The 26-year-old saw the shoe slide into her room as she was getting undressed at 4:30 pm.
“I told the store manager that I saw him put something under the door but I didn’t see what it was,” the alleged victim told The Post.
She and the manager then watched Finocchio pull the same stunt on a 28-year old, cops said.
“I knocked on [his dressing-room door] and said, ‘You have to come out right now,’” said manager Stephanie Williams.
She said when he finally came out, “he was sweating profusely.”
Williams said she led Finocchio to the front of the store — where he had a bag checked — while a co-worker called police,
“He said, ‘I’m so embarrassed. I was recording myself for a project — if I could just explain myself,’” Williams said.
Finocchio was charged with unlawful surveillance, a felony, and admitted to making the recordings, according to the criminal complaint.
The former NYU valedictorian — who won a prize for his knowledge of “19th-century art” — declined to comment at his Chelsea apartment.
An NYU spokesman said, “Until this matter is cleared up, he will not be assigned to any duties that involves contact with students.”