Out of Busch, Into Fogg

ART FOR ART'S sake. The Harvard administrators in charge of the transfer of the collection of German art now housed in the Busch-Reisinger Museum to the Fogg Art Museum might bear in mind the credo of some of the artists themselves. The decision to turn the Busch into a new building for the Center for European Studies has potential benefits for the Harvard community. But relocating the collection also has its pitfalls.

The University cites "financial, environmental, and academic concerns" motivating its decision to relocate the collection. These are not only justifications for the plan, but also precisely the concerns the University must keep in mind when carrying it out. Cramming another entire collection into the Fogg makes financial sense, but betrays the environmental concern. Likewise, spending $10 million on a new wing solves the problem of space; but the money might be better used to finance the much-needed office space for professors. In juggling these concerns, the financial pitfall would be to alienate the benefactors who have made possible the growth of the now extensive collection. In addition, farsighted environmental planning would prevent the sacrifice of the aesthetic value of the Busch.

Though the Busch-Reisinger was tailor-made for large plaster casts--not for the collection of paintings and sculpture now housed there--it does provide the coherence of one roof over a single collection. It is important academically that the University maintain the integrity of the collection in transfering it to the Fogg. One of the criticisms of the Busch is that it has hosted fewer and fewer visitors in recent years. We trust that--under the relocation plan--that trickle of visitors will not become a gathering of dust in a basement of the Fogg.