Dispossession by attrition is a permanent condition

[sovay]

FUCKING BERNIE MADOFF.

I suppose I should be glad an art museum is more readily sacrificed than a classics department? (I suspect it's easier to sell off paintings than professors.) Presidential reassurance notwithstanding, I find it hard to believe it's merely a sign of the times: "The global financial crisis and deepening national economic recession require Brandeis to formulate and execute decisive plans that will position the university to emerge stronger for the benefit of our students . . ." Oh, damn it, damn it. I should have gone to their surrealist exhibition in November. Art is meant to be cherished, not flung to the winds. Where do I protest? Maybe I can paint it on a wall.

Comments

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I'm really sorry :-(

It does seem like a drastic move... was that surgery really necessary? I don't know. I know my sister, who went to Tufts, told me that some $20 million of its endowment was lost thanks to Madoff, too.

[sovay]

I know my sister, who went to Tufts, told me that some $20 million of its endowment was lost thanks to Madoff, too.

I don't know how much Brandeis has lost. I would very much like to. The Rose Art Museum took the front-page headline in today's Globe, and from it I learn only some of the numbers:

In an interview last night, he [Michael Rush, the Rose Art Museum director] estimated the collection's value could top $350 million . . . A university spokesman said that Brandeis's endowment, which topped $700 million at one point, is down dramatically, though he declined to say by how much. Closing the Rose is likely to be one among several cost-cutting moves meant to bridge a budget deficit that could be as high as $10 million.

$10 million deficit, so you sell $350 million worth of art? How much have they really lost? What is going on here?

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Waka has said, in grimness and cynicism, but I fear with an eye on something true, that universities and other institutions are using the financial crisis as an excuse to make drastic, sweeping cuts. I wonder if this is the case with Brandeis. Though you'd think that destroying a museum wouldn't sit well with their benefactors, and the bad press can't help.