Tate removes Sackler name from its walls because of the billionaire family's major role in 500,000 opioid deaths in US
The Tate has removed a plaque inscribed with the Sackler name, due to the billionaire family's link to the opioid crisis that has killed more than 500,000 people.
Alongside the removal of the plaque, marking the Sackler escalator at Tate Modern in London, plans are also in place to remove a sign next to the Sackler lifts as well as to rename the Sackler Octagon at Tate Britain.The Sackler family earned £9.6 billion from Purdue Pharma, which produced and sold the highly addictive painkiller Oxycodone under the brand name OxyContin.
Detractors allege that the Sacklers knowingly misled doctors and regulators through a barrage of marketing activities about the addictiveness of OxyContin, a prescription drug used to treat moderate to severe pain - an accusation that the Sacklers deny.
The Sackler family have backed the arts to the tune of hundreds of millions of pounds, with £170million handed out to galleries in Britain alone since 2009.
Critics have accused the billionaire family of 'art-washing' their money, as their money has in some cases been given out on the condition that their name be celebrated in the exhibit.
The billionaire Sackler family have had their name removed from a plaque marking an escalator at the Tate Modern. Pictured: Kathe Sackler, former Vice President and member of the Board of Directors of Purdue Pharma, swearing in before testifying via video link before the US House Oversight Committee
A plaque marking the Sackler escalator at Tate Modern in London was removed last week
The Tate Modern has removed a Sackler plaque by an elevator and plans to remove a sign by the Sackler lifts; meanwhile, the Tate Britain will rename the Sackler Octagon
The Tate's decision makes it the first British institution to cut ties with the Sackler family, following in the footsteps of the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art, which expunged their name from seven galleries in December 2021 following protests.
The opioid crisis and the involvement of pharmaceutical companies, including the Sackler family's Purdue Pharma, has been put under a magnifying glass in recent months due to the October 2021 release (on Disney+ in the UK and Hulu in the US) of Dopesick, a drama series that takes viewers from the boardrooms of pharma companies to the broken, addiction-riddled lives of people in a Virginia mining community.
Based on the 2018 book by Beth Macy titled Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors and the Drug Company That Addicted America, the series recounts the history of how Purdue Pharma's sales team marketed OxyContin under the claim that 'less than one percent' of users would become addicted.
The Sackler Octagon, at Tate Modern, will be renamed in an effort at scrubbing away all associations with the billionaire family, who have donated hundreds of millions of pounds galleries over the last two decades
OxyContin, a brand name for the highly addictive opioid Oxycodone, was prescribed to people suffering only from mild pain, under the false belief that fewer than one percent of people would become addicted to it - a fake statistic promulgated by Purdue Pharma's marketers
Startling statistics show more than 13 million Americans currently abuse Oxycodone, which is a gateway drug to Heroin, including some children aged just 12, according to the United States Department of Justice.
Critics claim that false data about the addictiveness of the medication led to it being prescribed for the treatment of mild pain.
Since learning of the drug's highly addictive nature, doctors have stopped prescribing the drug for mild pain, as the benefits do not outweigh the high risk of developing dependency.
Dopesick, starring Michael Keaton and Kaitlyn Dever, uses fictional characters to represent the struggle of Americans living with opioid addiction, but it does not shy away from using the Sackler name in its production - with members of the billionaire family, who own Purdue Pharma, depicted in behind-the-scenes segments at the pharmaceutical company.
The Sackler family maintain they have always 'acted lawfully and ethically', although their company Purdue Pharma has now been dissolved, after confessing it had 'knowingly and intentionally conspired and agreed with others to aid and abet' doctors prescribing OxyContin 'without a legitimate medical purpose'
More than 13 million Americans currently abuse Oxycodone, which is a gateway drug to Heroin, including some children aged just 12, according to the United States Department of Justice
The US Justice Department's investigation into OxyContin and Purdue Pharma is also dramatised in the series.
Although the Sackler family deny involvement in promulgating false statistics regarding the addictiveness of OxyContin, saying they have always 'acted lawfully and ethically', Purdue Pharma accepted liability and has been dissolved and restructured as a public benefit organisation to fight the opioid crisis.
A statement on their website late last year read: 'Purdue’s Plan of Reorganisation (“Plan”) received bankruptcy court approval.
'The Plan will deliver billions in value to communities across the country to fund programs specifically for abatement of the opioid crisis. Substantially all of Purdue’s assets will be transferred to a new company with a public-minded mission.'
Before its dissolution, Purdue Pharma accepted it had 'knowingly and intentionally conspired and agreed with others to aid and abet' doctors prescribing the drug 'without a legitimate medical purpose' - after being exposed by a US Justice Department investigation.
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