Brandeis settles art museum suit

Also praising the settlement yesterday were Rose supporters who sued Brandeis in 2009 after the school announced it would respond to a university budget crisis by clos ing the museum and selling the collection, valued at about $350 million and with works that include Willem de Kooning, Jasper Johns, Morris Louis, and Helen Frankenthaler.

“I am confident that they understand and cherish this collection,’’ said Jonathan Lee, a longtime Rose supporter and plaintiff in the lawsuit along with Meryl Rose, Lois Foster, and Gerald Fineberg. Lawrence “is not going to let the collection be shuffled off.’’

Lawrence inherited the museum dispute in January after taking over from Brandeis president Jehuda Reinharz. It was Reinharz who announced in January 2009 that Brandeis would shut down the Rose and sell its 7,500-piece collection.

Museum leaders, art critics, and the Rose’s supporters attacked the decisions. Students held protests. Museum director Michael Rush, informed of the plan after it had been approved by Brandeis trustees, was recast as a crusading art-world folk hero. But Rush’s contract was not renewed.

Reinharz eventually put the university’s Rose plans on hold to examine other options for budget relief, but the lack of a legal reassurance left the museum in limbo. Artists scheduled for exhibitions pulled out. The museum was unable to find a successor to Rush.

The settlement should allay concerns, with the Rose moving forward on an approximately $1.5 million renovation, a director search, and plans to organize traveling exhibitions.

“It means that that nightmare is behind them, and it’s great to see Brandeis and the Rose back in the conversation and part of the family again,’’ said David Ross, the former director of the Institute of Contemporary Art and Whitney Museum of American Art. “I have no doubt that now the Rose will be able to attract a first-rate director. Before it would have been only somebody desperate for a job.’’