Posted on 01/26/2009 4:58:14 PM PST by Perdogg
A financial crisis is forcing Brandeis University to close the school's 48-year-old Rose Art Museum and to sell off a prized collection of contemporary American art, the university announced today.
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
ping
my heart so bleeds for ivy league elitists.
You have to do what you have to do.
probably indirect Madoff redux
http://www.google.com/search?q=Brandeis+madoff&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a
Cool, I’ve always wanted an art collection. Probably wind up getting sold to rich sheiks though. Thanks Perdogg.
“outstanding collection of modern and contemporary New England art.”
http://www.brandeis.edu/rose/
Ugh. I’ll pass.
“The permanent collection of The Rose Art Museum is internationally recognized for its quality and comprehensiveness. The collection numbers over 8,000 objects and is particularly strong in American art of the 1960s and 1970s. In line with seminal acquisitions of works by Willem de Kooning, Jasper Johns, Roy Lichtenstein, Morris Louis, James Rosenquist, and Andy Warhol in the ’60s, The Rose, through the establishment of the Rose and Hays Purchase Funds, continues its committment to acquiring art produced in our time. Recent acquisitions have included works by Matthew Barney, Helen Frankenthaler, Nan Goldin, Alfredo Jaar, Donald Judd, Annette Lemieux, Robert Mangold, Judy Pfaff, Anri Sala, Richard Serra, Cindy Sherman, Kiki Smith, and Jackie Windsor.”
The value of these sorts of artists have not held up very well lately.
Oops, didn’t finish.
I was about to say I’d trade the whole lot for a good Childe Hassam.
I read a bit about the press trying to play up Harvard’s difficulties and rolled my eyes. Yes, they took a major hit, losing 22% on their endowment last year.
An endowment of $34-billion dollars. :P I have a hard time sympathizing with that when they’re charging $34,000 per year in tuition for their undergraduates.
They’ve been investing in risky investments—investments that have been yielding very hefty dividends over the past 6 or 7 years. Naturally, a downward cycle follows.
As for Brandeis, well, so it goes. It’s kind of sad to see art collections just evaporate like that. They no doubt have some very wealthy alums who might help out, but we shall see. I wonder if this announcement is meant to perk up ears of said potential donors...
Looks like something Dr Suess came up with when he dropped acid.
“Yes, they took a major hit, losing 22% on their endowment last year”
“They’ve been investing in risky investments”
Those 2 statements totally contradict each other. If they only lost 22 %, they lost substantially less than most who were invested in ANY component of the economy, which means they were smarter and less risky with their money than most.
“particularly strong in American art of the 1960s and 1970s. In line with seminal acquisitions of works by Willem de Kooning, Jasper Johns, Roy Lichtenstein, Morris Louis, James Rosenquist, and Andy Warhol in the ’60s, “
- -
Congressional Record—Appendix, pp. A34-A35
January 10, 1963
Current Communist Goals
EXTENSION OF REMARKS OF HON. A. S. HERLONG, JR. OF FLORIDA
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Thursday, January 10, 1963
(cut)
“22. Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to “eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms.”
23. Control art critics and directors of art museums. “Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art.”
(cut)
http://www.uhuh.com/nwo/communism/comgoals.htm
(I am calling this a “score one for our team” moment.)
:’) Well, it’s crap. However, it was always crap. OTOH, here’s a story (pretty much true if memory serves) that may shed a little light, or make an interesting analogy, or something.
Lawrence Alma-Tadema, an ethnically Dutch painter who moved to the UK and became one of the big favorites of the Victorian era (the later part), didn’t live to see his body of work fall of the map of art-lovers. Around 1950, his formerly hugely famous (and huge) “Moses” wound up getting put down to the curb for rubbish pickup. A passerby thought it might be worth something, and sold it to an antique store for a few quid. :’) A bit of time went by.
Allen Funt, known to those who can remember such things as the creator and host of the original “Candid Camera” wandered into the store, saw the painting, bought it for not a tremendous amount of money, and started to research the artist. He wound up collecting numerous neglected or abandoned works by Alma-Tadema as his own personal art collecting hobby.
Eventually, Funt’s accountant embezzled (I think it was) and got Funt into trouble for tax evasion (Funt wasn’t guilty). He was nearly ruined, so he had to auction off the one thing he had of great value — his beloved collection of Alma-Tadema paintings. With help from some museum or gallery, he put together his own exhibition of all the works, so that the public could see them together and appreciate Alma-Tadema, mostly for the first time. Funt’s act of generosity despite his own personal adversity resulted in a revival of interest in the artist.
Well done.
Maybe they got caught up in that ponzi scheme?
I suppose that even a leftist place like Brandeis has little confidence in Obama’s economic stimulus package, so it has to cut back.
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