Brandeis

University Plans To Loan Museum Art To Raise Funds

Filed under: Art

Last year Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts caused an uproar when it announced plans to close its Rose Art Museum and possibly sell off the art. Now the university has a different plan, one that carries its own controversy. The Boston Globe reports that the university plans to hire Sotheby's auction house to act as a broker to loan out selected works from the Rose's well-regarded collection. Usually art loans take place between museums and don't usually bring in revenue but in some cases some museums have paid millions to borrow key works for certain shows. Some people have expressed concern that works could be loaned out to prviate collectors or corporations who don't have conservationists on staff and might not adequately care for the works.

In just under 50 years the Rose has amassed a collection of 7,500 objects that is said to be worth as much as $350 million. The Rose Art Museum collects American art of the 1960s and 1970s and has pieces by Willem de Kooning, Jasper Johns, Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol. Although the museum is in better financial shape than it was a year ago and it still faces an annual structural deficit of between $10 million and $15 million. The university expects to sign a contract with Sotheby's sometime next month and could begin entertaining art loan proposals this fall.

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University To Close Down Art Museum, Sell Off Great Works

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Art

The news is full of bad news for museums lately with many cutting hours and jobs to try and stave off budgetary disaster. One that hasn't made it is the Rose Art Museum which is part of Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts. The Boston Globe reports that the museum will sell off a 8,000 work art collection. The Rose Art Museum collects American art of the 1960s and 1970s and has pieces by Willem de Kooning, Jasper Johns, Roy Lichtenstein, Morris Louis, James Rosenquist, and Andy Warhol. The move comes as Brandeis is looking at finding ways to cope with a multimillion dollar budget deficit. Because the museum has a lot of valuable art but not a lot of foot traffic it was seen as a place to make cuts.

The museum will close late this summer. Christie's has been working on analysis of the value of the collection. While this is not the ideal time to be selling any art, especially modern and contemporary pieces, the depth and breadth of the Rose Art Museum collection will attract a great deal of attention.

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Tags: art, brandeis, brandeisuniversity, rose art museum, RoseArtMuseum