Sackler Family Negotiates Legal Immunity in Opioid Settlement, Affecting Arts Patronage

The Sackler family, owners of Purdue Pharma, has reached a legal settlement granting them personal immunity from civil lawsuits related to opioid marketing. In exchange, they will pay $4.5 billion, up from an initial $3 billion offer, and Purdue Pharma will restructure as a nonprofit. The agreement requires the release of millions of internal company documents and bars the Sacklers from seeking naming rights at museums or public institutions for nine years. Independent trustees will manage the family's $175 million charitable arts trusts, redirecting funds to address opioid addiction. Major institutions that received Sackler donations include the Guggenheim, American Museum of Natural History, and Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, along with Tate, National Portrait Gallery, Serpentine, and South London Gallery in London. Many have since returned donations or removed the Sackler name. Artist Nan Goldin, a former OxyContin addict and activist, criticized the settlement as insufficient, noting the temporary nature of the naming restrictions. Purdue Pharma manufactures OxyContin, a prescription painkiller linked to over 500,000 overdose deaths in the U.S. over two decades. The settlement involves fifteen American states and aims to resolve thousands of individual legal claims.