US University Flogs Its Art

A US university is being forced by the sagging economy to close its celebrated museum of modern art and sell off its 8,000-piece art collection, which includes works by Jasper Johns and Andy Warhol. Brandeis University's board of trustees voted unanimously to close its Art Museum as part of a campus-wide effort to preserve the university's educational mission in the face of the historic economic recession and financial crisis. The art museum will close in "late summer 2009" and the art collection will be sold through a top auction house. Proceeds from the sale will be reinvested in the Massachusetts-based university "to combat the far-reaching effects of the economic crisis and fortify the university's position for the future." Michael Rush, director of the museum, valued the art collection at around $350 million dollars. The announced closure of the museum, which was inaugurated in 1961, came as "a total surprise and shock" to Rush and other art museum staff, the director of the museum told AFP. "We weren't asked to attend the meeting" last week, where the decision was made, Rush said. (For full source and full article click the Headline). Irish Art