The Sackler family name will no longer hang in seven iconic exhibition spaces in New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, including the gallery wing that houses the famed Temple of Dendur.
In a statement made on Thursday, the museum called the move “a gracious gesture” on the part of the Sacklers, the philanthropist family and public face of the United States’ opioid crisis. “We greatly appreciate it,” said Daniel H. Weiss, president and CEO of the Met.
The museum said the decision was made in partnership with the descendants of Dr. Mortimer Sackler and Dr. Raymond Sackler, the brothers who founded and ran Purdue Pharma LP, the maker of frequently abused painkiller OxyContin. Purdue Pharma was informally dissolved earlier this year.
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“Our families have always strongly supported The Met, and we believe this to be in the best interest of the Museum and the important mission that it serves,” the Sacklers said in a statement. “The earliest of these gifts were made almost fifty years ago, and now we are passing the torch to others who might wish to step forward to support the Museum.”
In the wake of outrage over the opioid crisis, which has killed hundreds of thousands of people, the Sacklers agreed to a $3 billion payout to help states remediate addiction. But the family would only do so, it said in court documents, if it was released from “all potential federal liability arising from or related to opioid-related activities.”
In September, the Sacklers were granted “global peace” by a federal judge, who approved a bankruptcy settlement giving them immunity from any future lawsuits involving the opioid crisis. The judge called it “a bitter result.”
As part of the September bankruptcy plan, the family—some of whom were named alongside their company in numerous civil lawsuits—agreed to contribute $4.5 billion, sell all pharmaceutical holdings, and forfeit their equity stake in Purdue.
Their fortune remains at an estimated $11 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
The Met had previously cut itself off from the family’s money following protests in 2019. The museum followed the lead of several other cultural institutions in financially divesting from the family, including Britain’s National Portrait Gallery and New York City’s Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.
At that time, the museum specified that although it would no longer take gifts from family members, it had no intention of removing the Sackler name from the wing housing the Temple of Dendur.
That same year, the Louvre in Paris became the first major museum to pull the Sacklers’ name off its walls, following a protest led by photographer and former opioid addict Nan Goldin.
“I think it happened due to our protests,” Goldin told The New York Times. “It shows direct action works.”
