After a decades-long marriage, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Purdue Pharma's Sackler family are parting ways: the disgraced Sacklers, who have been pushing their highly addictive Oxycontin since 1996, will have their name stripped from all seven of the museum's exhibition spaces.
The announcement came today, made jointly by both the Met and the Sacklers.
From The New York Times:
"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 descendants of Dr. Mortimer Sackler and Dr. Raymond Sackler said in a statement. "The earliest of these gifts were made almost 50 years ago, and now we are passing the torch to others who might wish to step forward to support the museum." …
The museum had already severed ties to the family's funding, announcing in 2019 that it would no longer accept gifts from the Sacklers, given their links to the maker of OxyContin.
"The Met has been built by the philanthropy of generations of donors — and the Sacklers have been among our most generous supporters," said Dan Weiss, the Met's president and chief executive officer. "This gracious gesture by the Sacklers aids the museum in continuing to serve this and future generations. We greatly appreciate it." …
As the founders of Purdue Pharma, which produced the opioid painkiller OxyContin, the Sackler family has come under increased scrutiny in recent years for the company's role in the marketing of the drug, and in the opioid crisis.
