On the block

Brandeis University, hurting badly from the economic crisis, announced tonight that it will close the Rose Art Museum and auction off the collection.

The Rose isn't exactly a household name, and it draws only some 13,000 visitors a year. But it holds what's probably the most important collection of modern and contemporary art in New England; the museum's director recently conservatively estimated the collection's value as "at least $300 million."

And there's the irony. He engaged Christie's to conduct a formal appraisal, in an effort to demonstrate to the Trustees the immense value of their art holdings, and so convince them of the need to invest in new facilities and continued support for the collection. Instead, it would appear, the Trustees asked themselves why a liberal arts university in a fiscal crisis, cutting salaries and laying off teaching staff, was sitting on an immensely valuable art collection that no one even visits. Oops.