London’s Serpentine Gallery will no longer take donations from the Sackler family after a major artist exhibiting at the institution slammed the family whose company, Purdue Pharma, is behind OxyContin, one of the painkillers at the center of the deadly US opioids crisis.
Artist Hito Steyerl’s show opened on Thursday at the Serpentine Sackler Gallery, the space at the renowned institution that includes the name of the multi-billionaire family known for worldwide philanthropy to the arts and education, but which made its wealth from a pharmaceutical company now facing an avalanche of lawsuits in America over its addictive prescription opioid.
Steyerl spoke out dramatically at a preview of her show on Wednesday, likening the long history of links between leading institutions and Sackler philanthropy to being unknowingly married to a serial killer. She urged institutions to disentangle themselves.
“Imagine you were married to a serial killer and wanted a divorce; it shouldn’t be a problem to get a divorce,” she said.
The gallery has previously defended its Sackler funding. But on Wednesday it changed tack publicly for the first time, putting out a statement that concluded: “Donations to the Serpentine from the Sackler Trust are historic and we have no future plans to accept funding from the Sacklers.”
The news was first reported in the arts press. The decision by the Serpentine follows a flurry of similar announcements about the family’s philanthropy in recent weeks, by London’s National Portrait Gallery and Tate group, the Guggenheim museum in New York and a small number of US academic institutions, all of which have received gifts or offers of gifts of many millions from the billionaire members of the Sackler family.
One of the charitable arms of the family has since suspended all giving in what is turning into a year of reckoning over the crisis. The family denies all wrongdoing.
Steyerl began a speech at the gallery on Wednesday by saying that she wanted to address what she called the “elephant in the room”.
“It is very difficult for a single person, an artist, or an institution, to handle this tricky situation,” she said, adding that the gallery’s “association to a family who are under a lot of critical scrutiny, for good reason” was a problem.
She urged artists and institutions to “pull together and start solving the problem” by finding legal ways to sever ties with the family.
Steyerl said she had sought advice from US art photographer Nan Goldin, who used her personal struggle with addiction after being prescribed OxyContin to inspire a campaign called Pain (Prescription Addiction Intervention Now).
Goldin and fellow activists led direct action protests at the Metropolitan and Guggenheim museums in New York and has exerted and continues to exert intense pressure on London galleries and arts and academic institutions on both sides of the Atlantic that have taken Sackler money.
Steyerl’s new show at the Serpentine is called Hito Steyerl: Power Plants and explores themes of power, inequality and social justice. It includes an augmented reality app, which shows the viewer “morphed” images of the exterior of the gallery, including an image that excludes the Sackler name that is normally prominently displayed on the facade.
The gallery has no plans to remove the family name from the building, however.
Representatives of the family in London did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the Serpentine developments.
The launch of OxyContin in the mid-90s is blamed as partly responsible for the US opioids crisis that is blamed for killing more than 100 people a day in America. Critics say it was massively overprescribed.
In addition to past litigation, a wave of recent lawsuits has been brought by state and local governments in the US, alleging ongoing deception about the safety of the drug, which the company had previously admitted misbranding in a 2007 criminal case.
The Sackler family members behind Purdue and the company do not accept they are to blame for the crisis and deny any wrongdoing.
A spokesperson claimed OxyContin represented a small percentage of the overall opioid prescription in the US and the US Food and Drug Administration had always been aware of the risks associated with it which is why it is labelled with a warning of a high potential for abuse.
Two branches of the family, mainly based in Connecticut, New York and the London area, control Purdue Pharma. Unlike their company, none of the Sacklers have personally been charged with crimes, although they are currently being investigated by prosecutors in the US, the Guardian learned last year.
The family members and the company deny all wrongdoing and are vigorously defending themselves in all the ongoing cases.
A major case against Purdue Pharma was settled in Oklahoma last month for $270m , which included a voluntary contribution of $75m from the family even though no individual Sacklers were named as defendants, as they are in several other lawsuits.
A spokesperson told the Guardian the settlement did not amount to an acceptance of responsibility for the opioids crisis in the US and nor was it an admission of any wrongdoing on the part of the company or the family members behind it. The branch of the family descended from Arthur Sackler has not profited from Purdue Pharma.