Brandeis Was Just Kidding About Selling Art (Maybe)

Sike! Brandeis may be closing the Rose Art Museum, but it's not necessarily selling all the art. Ha! That was a good one, Brandeis! We are slapping our knees over here.

Apparently the decision to turn the museum into a non-museum (a "study and research center," which is different from a museum because nobody studies or researches at a museum) doesn't necessarily involve selling all the art, it just allows the university to sell the art. See, it's unethical for museums to sell their works, but it's not unethical for trustees to single-handedly close a beloved museum without community input so they can sell paintings if they feel like it.

Granted, Brandeis says much of the artwork that's not sold will be displayed publicly, some of it in galleries in the old Rose space, so people will still be able to appreciate the art. The move is intended more to save the administrative costs of running the museum than to sell off the museum's entire collection. The school has lost more than $150 million—pennies compared to Harvard's loss, but 25% of Brandeis' now-$549 million endowment. Not only that, it can't access these funds due to a law limiting schools to spending endowment assets that have appreciated. The school clearly needed to cut costs, but it shouldn't have done so like this. Brandeis officials handled the matter poorly, alienating their students, alumni, and friends (y'know, the people who might have been inclined to give the school money) and giving the press time to rip them apart before clarifying the situation.

As if the PR debacle weren't enough, it looks like Brandeis has been mishandling its finances for a long time. A detailed article in the Brandeis Justice discusses the school's financial state. Brandeis COO Peter French says the school has "drawn too many funds out of the endowment, overrelied on gifts and failed to spend enough money to keep up the maintenance of its facilities throughout its history." The school will now have to rely on its savings (a mere $85 million) to get through the next few years, after which "our savings account is, in essence, gone," said French.

Nice judgment, Judges. Doesn't bode so well for your future.