Following a storm of criticism over his announcement that Brandeis University would close its Rose Art Museum and sell off its art collection, Brandeis president Jehuda Reinharz said yesterday that the school may yet keep the art — although the closure of the Rose is definite, the Boston Globe reports.

At a meeting of about 200 students, Reinharz signaled that if the university's economic and philanthropic ails are remedied, the art collection, which includes works by Warhol, Magritte, and de Kooning, might stay.

"If in fact there is a miracle tomorrow morning and the economy turns around and the stock market is up by 45 percent, nothing impels me, nothing impels us, to do anything," he said. "We have no particular mandate from the board of trustees as to when to sell, how to sell."

Brandeis provost Marty Krauss also explained why the board voted to close the museum by late summer and turn it into a research and study center. Krauss said in an interview that university officials did not believe they could operate a museum and at the same time sell art to pay for the school's needs. Closing the museum gives the university more breathing room and freedom.

Although petitions have been started, arts leaders have condemned the decision, and Brandeis students plan to protest today and tomorrow, Reinharz said the closure of the Rose will go through, and that the university will not open a new museum in the Rose's space anytime in the future. If the university keeps all or some of the art, "we will do what other universities do," he said. The study and research center will have a gallery space, which Reinharz claimed will be of "great importance" to the school's fine arts students.

At the meeting yesterday, Brandeis officials disclosed that the school's endowment had shrunk roughly 25 percent, from $712 million to $549 million.