University museum to be shuttered

from the Wall Street Journal (2/3):

FEBRUARY 3, 2009, 11:40 P.M. ET
The Brandeis Bombshell
Is the University's Museum Just a Rose to Be Plucked?

By DANIEL GRANT

"For the trustees at Brandeis University, the easy part is over. Without an apparent word of dissent, all 50 or so trustees approved a plan on Jan. 26 to close the university's 48-year-old Rose Art Museum and sell its entire 7,180-piece art collection, which was last appraised in 2006 at about $350 million.

Brandeis's endowment had plunged to $540 million at the end of 2008 from $712 million as of June 30 of that year, and it was earning significantly less than the 8%-plus annual return on investment it had posted on June 30. Some of Brandeis's trustees are believed to have lost money from Bernard Madoff's Ponzi scheme, limiting their ability to make up the difference. The school, which by law spends only its gains and not the principal of the endowment, reduced expenditures by $10 million and instituted various budget-freezing measures," ....

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