Several interesting developments in the Rose Art Museum "Close-Out Sale."
Today on
WBUR in a story about the Rose Art Museum it was reported that a lot of the financial troubles are from big Brandeis donors in big with Madoff's Ponzi scheme.
The precipitous fall of the financial markets last year left the university's endowment twenty per cent off its peak of $700 million. And donations are down, too. The President of Brandeis, Jehuda Reinharz, explains that many of the university's major donors were invested with Bernard Madoff, the financier whose alleged Ponzi scheme collapsed late last year.
JEHUDA REINHARZ: In times of stress, we could have gone to them and said: "Look, we have a problem here, and this is what we need you to do. They don't have the money right now, and so it's not possible to talk to them at this point.
Reinharz says Brandeis is just among the first Boston to feel the pain inflicted by Madoff.
JEHUDA REINHARZ: Two weeks ago, I was in Palm Beach, where many of the victims of Madoff are, and I can tell you that there's not been a single discussion on any topic whatsoever that did not start with Madoff. Everybody has been affected by this, and you're going to see it's not just Brandeis. You're going to see, in Boston, institutions of higher learning and museums and symphonies and orchestras and all kinds of cultural institutions of great renown and of great importance to the city are going to be affected by this.
Also, seems that Brandeis won't sell everything. I'm not sure I understand. What will be sold? The most valuable? Will Brandeis keep lesser known works in a storage shed? Is the University really in such a situation that they "have no other choice" but to sell the collection?
Reinharz says Brandeis does not intend to sell the entire art collection, just some of the works. He promises that the university will check the donors' wishes before selling. And, he says Brandeis hopes to avoid dumping these works onto the art market at a time when prices are depressed. It intends, rather, to take its time selling them piecemeal at the best prices it can get. What it will get, he doesn't know.
Art critic Sebastian Smee writes in the
Boston Globe today that the "hawking" of this gem is a scandal.
How shocking, when you think about it, to resort to selling off art given by donors who, wanting their prized works to be made available to the public, have chosen the Rose Art Museum for that purpose!
If they are sold at auction, almost all of the museum's works are likely to end up in private hands. Whatever the sum raised by such a sale, it is sure to be a whole lot less than it would have been when the market was at its peak last year. So into the wound of the moral insult is rubbed the salt of poor timing.
I am not privy to the financial state of Brandeis University, and, as I said, panic is sometimes the only appropriate response.
But Brandeis's responsibility is not just to the institution. Being a custodian of great art is both a privilege and a grave responsibility.
"Is the ship sinking?" (Rose Art Museum Director Michael) Rush asked, referring to the university. "If it isn't sinking, I think what they're doing is unconscionable. Unless your back is up against the wall and someone has a gun to your head, there's just no excuse turning cultural assets into currency and selling them off. It's a big mistake, because you can never go back."
It is more than a mistake. It is a scandal.
The Boston Globe also raised concerns about how the campus community is reacting to the crisis.
The scope and speed of the turmoil buffeting the Waltham campus have left many students and faculty members reeling, with many questioning the administration's decisions to deal with the financial crisis.
"There was a ripple throughout the entire faculty of feeling hoodwinked," Andreas Teuber, chairman of the philosophy department, said yesterday. Other professors said they were furious about the museum decision, coming only days after administrators promised to consult them on major decisions related to the financial crunch.
Alumni launched an online petition yesterday against the museum's closure, and students plan to hold a sit-in at the museum tomorrow to protest the move and what they described as a lack of student involvement in the decision.
"We were left in the dark," said Carrie Mills, a freshman from Connecticut. "We certainly feel marginalized as a whole. It feels like there's a brick wall between us and the administration, and nothing is getting through."
There is a lot more to this story and the Globe is really covering it. I'll leave you with a quote from one more article, this time from
Greg Edgers. Edgers quotes one of the Rose's major benefactors, Lois Foster.
Of the Rose closing, Foster said: "It's like a death."
Roy Lichtenstein, 1962 "Forget it! Forget Me!"
The Rose
Odili Donald Odit, 2007 "Paper Trail II: Passing Through Clouds"
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