Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Still More on the Rose Art Museum

More email from Jehuda Reinharz this morning. This time, there's some backpedaling and some bullshit. I quote directly:
The initial statements regarding this decision did not accurately reflect the Board’s decision authorizing the administration to conduct “an orderly sale or other disposition of works from the university’s collection.” The statements gave the misleading impression that we were selling the entire collection immediately, which is not true. The University may have the option, subject to applicable legal requirements and procedures, to sell some artworks if necessary. The Museum will remain open, but in accordance with the Board’s vote, it will be more fully integrated into the University’s central educational mission. A faculty committee is expected to make recommendations on this issue shortly.
To paraphrase: we screwed up our original announcement. To take this apart a bit:
  • "The University may have the option, subject to applicable legal requirements and procedures, to sell some artworks if necessary" means "we'll sell what we can when the lawyers get done looking at the documents."
  • "The Museum will remain open, but in accordance with the Board’s vote, it will be more fully integrated into the University’s central educational mission" means "The Rose won't be a museum any more."
There are some details about other places the University has made cuts, but no specific numbers about the budget, the past and future size of the endowment, no admission that it's a raid, etc., etc. I'm sure you can hear me banging the table from wherever it is you're sitting.

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