National Gallery and Guggenheim Remove Sackler Name Amid Opioid Crisis Fallout

On May 9, London's National Gallery announced the removal of the Sackler family name from its Sackler Gallery, ending a 30-year naming agreement with the Dr Mortimer and Theresa Sackler Foundation. This decision aligns with growing pressure on cultural institutions to distance themselves from pharmaceutical magnates linked to Purdue Pharma, manufacturer of the opioid Oxycodona. The United States has faced a public health crisis due to indiscriminate opioid use, with allegations that Purdue Pharma deliberately concealed the drug's addictive potential. Simultaneously, New York's Guggenheim Museum quietly removed the Sackler name from its Art Education Center, despite decades of generous donations from the family. Previously, institutions including the Tate group, Serpentine Galleries, British Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Musée du Louvre had already removed Sackler mentions. In England, the National Gallery's move may increase pressure on the Victoria and Albert Museum, which named a courtyard after the Sacklers in 2017 following a $9.9 million donation. In the United States, a settlement granting the Sackler family immunity from opioid-related lawsuits faced opposition from nine state attorneys general until early March, when objections were dropped. The Sacklers agreed to pay $6 billion to the state, though critics note the family received $10 billion in Oxycodona profits over the years and that the annual U.S. opioid crisis costs $1 trillion.