With shutdown looming, Brandeis museum draws new fans

By Eric Moskowitz, Globe Staff

Scores of people flocked to the Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University in Waltham Saturday, many of them saying they were visiting for the first time after hearing media reports that the facility will be closed and its collection sold off to bolster the university’s tight finances.

“We just think it’s a shame,” said Sascha Lamstein, 35, of Watertown, who was visiting from Watertown with her husband, Vlad Selsky, 34, and her 6-month-old son, Eli. The couple said they had never known of the museum’s existence until this week.

Noting the controversy that has been sparked since the university’s announcement this week about the museum's fate, she said she hoped the publicity would result in some solution being found.

“Maybe this will be their salvation, this bad news coming out. Maybe it will motivate people,” she said.

“We wanted to make sure we see it before anything does happen,” said Selsky.

Ernest Paulin, 22, a Brandeis senior from Norwell who was serving as a museum guide today, said there was a “surge” in the number of people visiting today.

“Attendance is only like this if there’s an event or a tour or something. So it’s exciting -- in a sad way, of course,” he said.

Jehuda Reinharz, the president of Brandeis, opened the possibility Wednesday that the university might not sell the $350 million collection, but he said he would not change his mind about closing the museum. Reinharz wants to turn the building into a study and research center.

University officials have said there has been a sharp drop in the university’s endowment that may force them to sell the Rose’s collection of modern art, which includes works by Warhol, de Kooning, and Magritte.