Ailing Brandeis (University) will shut museum, sell treasured art

[sabra]

Source: Boston Globe

Rocked by a budget crisis, Brandeis University will close its Rose Art Museum and sell off a 6,000-object collection that includes work by such contemporary masters as Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, and Nam June Paik.

The move shocked local arts leaders and drew harsh criticism from Rose supporters and the Association of College and University Museums and Galleries. Michael Rush, the Rose Art Museum director, only learned of the decision late yesterday afternoon, hours after the university's board of trustees voted unanimously to close the 48-year-old museum.

In an interview last night, he estimated the collection’s value could top $350 million. Still, the director and other museum supporters took issue with the university's decision, which came after endowment losses and a sharp slowdown in fund-raising.

"It is the largest asset that the university owns, and it is a world-class asset," said Jonathan Lee, who chairs the Rose's board of overseers. "So they're saying, 'Oops, we've had some bad reversals in our endowment investments, and we're going to make it up by selling our art.' What a second-class institution we've decided to be."

Read more: http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2009/01/27/ailing_brandeis_will_shut_museum_sell_treasured_art/

[BrklynLiberal]

1. Wow. that is a shock. Were they invested with Madoff?

To bad the alumni cannot help.

[lapfog_1]

8. Even before I scrolled down, I had the same exact thought. - n/t

[Eugene]

12. Their big donors invested with Madoff.

Local TV news cites the Madoff scandal as part of the problem.

[bluestateguy]

2. Why universities tie up their endowments into the stock market is beyond me

Do they think that the market only goes up? Wall Street is a casino. Best to keep money out of there.

There's a lot to be said for the old-fashioned bank account.

[Oregone]

4. Don't most Universities? They are just businesses...

The place I graduated from lost 180 million or so already

[Johnyawl]

5. they used to put it all in real estate

The U of Washington used to own a several pieces of commercial property in downtown Seattle. Don't know if they still do.

[GoesTo11]

3. Start of a trend?

The article says the museum gets about 12,000 visitors a year. Some quick math: The collection is worth about $350,000,000. Let's say they could invest that conservatively and earn 5%, or $17,500,000 per year. That comes out to about $1500 per visitor. From a straight economics perspective, that sounds kinda dear.

[roguevalley]

6. maybe someone will buy this stuff and put it on display at the college

or donate it to them.

[frazzled]

7. It's really tragic and short-sighted

The recession will pass, but they will never ever be able to buy back works of art like that. And they can never get back that kind of teaching resource and community prestige. Some Russian oil tycoon will buy the stuff and it will disappear forever. Shame, shame.

The same stupid trustees that made the bad investment decisions are making bad short-term decisions once again.

[Festivito]

9. The Bush economic terrorists have won another prize.

Cheap art works. They can now buy our properties for less while they have more.

Our cheap labor is just gravy.

[david13]

10. This is Crazy And

I don't understand it.
The school I went to had a fund raiser a while back 1.4 BILLION raised, but more recently they had another and raised 2.5 billion, yes, dollars, but I understand that has been beat by USC, yes, U of Southern California at 2.8 billion dollars, and UCLA at 2.8 billion.
Recently some local gave 10 million dollars to, Cal State Northridge.
Recently I was down at USC and ONE PERSON gave 175 million dollars.
So it seems like Brandeis is not doing something right.
dc

[muriel_volestrangler]

11. Sounds sensible to me

They say their endowment fund was worth $700 million at its peak, but is now well down from that. They're a small university - just 3,200 undergraduates. Having over $100,000 of art per student seems a little excessive. I'd rather seem them continue to educate people than say "the art is more important than keeping the student numbers up".