FACES OF GREED –
Dec. 26, 2021 – The name adorns the £2 million courtyard at the V&A in South Kensington, which opened in 2017, and its Sackler Centre for Arts Education. The V&A said that although it fully respected the Sacklers’ decision to stop donating, “we are not considering the removal of signage related to past or present donors”. Nan Goldin, an artist and photographer who became addicted to OxyContin after injuring her wrist, is the founder of the campaign group Pain (Prescription Addiction Intervention Now), which has led protests at institutions including the V&A and the Metropolitan Museum. In 2018 they threw orange pill bottles into the reflecting pool in the Met’s Sackler Wing.
“It is a moral issue,” Goldin said. “Museums are supposed to stand for something besides money. They have a mandate for education, learning and beauty. I know a lot of artists who don’t want to show in galleries with the Sackler name.”
The dynasty stretches back three generations to when three medically trained brothers went into pharmaceuticals. Two of them, Raymond and Mortimer Sackler, bought Purdue in 1952 and launched OxyContin in 1996. At its peak in 2010, the drug was making $3 billion a year.
