Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Randolph's reprehensible purge
From the RoundTable blog
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Ellen Agnew
Agnew, former associate director of the Maier Museum, resigned over Randolph College's handling of its art collection.
South Central Virginia may lose a vital part of its cultural heartbeat, under the most unfortunate and deceptive circumstances. Randolph College (formerly Randolph-Macon Woman's College), whose Maier Museum of Art houses one of the finest American art collections in the country, plans to auction off four prized paintings in an ill-considered, greedy effort to boost its endowment.
As an art professional and former associate director of the Maier, I am deeply troubled by this. The paintings' removal destroys a cohesive history of American art and patronage that has educated generations of students and visitors, and insults the best qualities of the institution: vision, dedicated purpose, leadership and a sense of community.
Even more egregious, the loss is financially unnecessary. With just 665 students, Randolph already is backed by a substantial ($153 million) endowment that is larger than most of its peer institutions, including many with far larger student bodies.
Crying need, college officials cite a "warning" given last December by their accrediting agency. The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, however, issued the warning not because Randolph's endowment was inadequate, but because its tuition discount rate was too high (nearly twice the national average) and its deferred maintenance and operating deficits excessive. All are signs of fiscal mismanagement, not an inadequate endowment.
And President John Klein has admitted as much, saying: "Neither the college's operating deficit nor the SACS warning is an immediate threat to our existence as an accredited college. The college has an endowment of $153 million, which is large for a college of its size, but it needs an additional capital infusion to lower the endowment spending rate until the college can increase its enrollment and lower its tuition discount." So, the college is willing to jettison its most distinguished educational resource to get over a short-term slump.
So far the college has taken four paintings to be sold at auction in November, including the masterpiece "Men of the Docks" by George Bellows, purchased in 1920 with money donated primarily by R-MWC alumnae and residents of greater Lynchburg. College officials say they took "only four" of 3,500 works in the museum, but those four account for 40 percent of the collection's financial value and two are among the 38 works that are always on public display -- the cornerstones of the collection.
The Bellows reportedly is expected to go at auction for up to $40 million, but no one knows if this will be enough to satiate the college. What is known is that if college officials decide that the take from this unethical action isn't enough, they have vowed to send more art to the auction block.
The lack of financial necessity isn't the only disturbing aspect of this action. The unethical way in which the decision was made and implemented is equally troubling.
Nearly all of the art world's membership organizations have condemned Randolph's actions, which violate universally accepted museum practices. And if going against accepted ethical standards isn't bad enough, the removal violates the Maier's own operational policies.
The reckless manner by which the art was taken from the Maier ignores every professional standard by which museums operate. The removal was shrouded in secrecy and happened without prior notice to the museum staff, and without proper supervision, handling, packing, documentation or planning.
Imagine the state of the art world if museum trustees could storm the museums they oversee at will, quickly and secretly confiscating what they want, simply because they knew that formal "de-accessioning" of the works of art taken would be unpopular.
Such a rationalization by the college's officials for their poor behavior is reprehensible. The public should be outraged.
