The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York will rename its Egyptian gallery and six other exhibition spaces after public outrage over allegations that the Sackler family may have played a role in America’s opioid crisis.
In a joint statement with the museum, descendants of Mortimer and Raymond Sackler said they had agreed that their family name should be removed from what was called the Sackler Wing, which houses the Temple of Dendur, and from other galleries.
Raymond and Mortimer Sackler, along with their brother Arthur, were the owners of a West Village pharmaceuticals company called Purdue Frederick. In the Seventies, Arthur made a donation to the Met which helped to fund a new northern wing for the Temple of Dendur, a gift from Egypt to the United States. He died in 1987 and his share of the company was acquired by his brothers, whose company, which became Purdue Pharma, began aggressively marketing the painkiller OxyContin in 1996.
In the years that followed, amid a growing opioid epidemic now blamed for killing half a million people, local and state governments filed suits against the company and against the descendants of Raymond and Mortimer Sackler. One filed by the state of New York accused descendants of seeking to “cover-up their misconduct with a philanthropic campaign”, including via donations to the Met.
In 2019 the museum announced that it would sever ties with members of the Sackler family linked to Purdue Pharma. The company was dissolved in September as part of a bankruptcy settlement which required Sackler family members to pay $4.5 billion, but largely absolved them from liability.
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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 descendants said in a statement yesterday.
