Digital Editions
Newsletters
Subscribe
Digital Editions
Newsletters
Art market
Museums & heritage
Exhibitions
Books
Podcasts
Columns
Technology
Adventures with Van Gogh
Art market
Museums & heritage
Exhibitions
Books
Podcasts
Columns
Technology
Adventures with Van Gogh
Protest
news

Online petition demands Sacklers and Purdue Pharma pay for rehab centres and Narcan dispensers

The activist group founded by the artist Nan Goldin, who revealed her struggles with opioid addiction, says it intends to pressure museums to refuse the philanthropic family’s money

Helen Stoilas
13 January 2018
Share
Nan Goldin, Pain/Sackler, Royal College of Art, London (2017) and Oxy Script (2017) Nan Goldin, instagram.com/sacklerpain

Nan Goldin, Pain/Sackler, Royal College of Art, London (2017) and Oxy Script (2017) Nan Goldin, instagram.com/sacklerpain

The artist Nan Goldin and her newly formed activist group PAIN (Prescription Addiction Intervention Now) have launched an online petition calling for the Sackler family and Purdue Pharma to take responsibility for the opioid crisis in the US. The group demands that the Sacklers, whose fortune stems from the pharmaceutical company that created the prescription drug OxyContin, immediately pay for rehab treatment, opioid addiction education and the installation of “public dispensers of Narcan, the medicine that reverses an overdose, on every corner in America”.

The Change.org petition, which was launched on Friday with a link on the Instagram account @sacklerpain, insists that the Sackler family, which funds a number of arts organisations through its philanthropic foundations, “move their money into treatment and education”. The activist group says it intends “to put pressure on museums, art spaces and educational institutions to refuse future donations from the Sacklers” and “put social and political pressure on [the family] to respond meaningfully to this crisis”.

Goldin founded PAIN last week, when she published a personal essay in Artforum magazine that describes her own experiences with addiction. After successfully receiving treatment, she writes: “I became absorbed in reports of addicts dropping dead from my drug, OxyContin. I learned that the Sackler family, whose name I knew from museums and galleries, were responsible for the epidemic. This family formulated, marketed, and distributed OxyContin. I have decided to make the private public by calling them to task.”

“The opioid epidemic is a national crisis and Purdue Pharma’s role in it is morally abhorrent to me,” says Dr Elizabeth A. Sackler, the former chair of the Brooklyn Museum’s board of trustees and the founder of its feminist art centre, in a statement. “I admire Nan Goldin’s commitment to take action and her courage to tell her story. I stand in solidarity with artists and thinkers whose work and voices must be heard. My father, Arthur M. Sackler, died in 1987, before Oxycontin existed and his one-third option in Purdue Frederick was sold by his estate to his brothers a few months later. None of his descendants have ever owned a share of Purdue stock nor benefitted in any way from it or the sale of Oxycontin. I stand with all angry voices against abuse of power that harms or compromises any and all lives.”

A spokesman for Purdue Pharma said in a statement: “We are deeply troubled by the prescription and illicit opioid abuse crisis, and we are dedicated to being part of the solution. For more than 15 years, this company has a strong track record of addressing prescription drug abuse which includes collaborating with law enforcement, funding state prescription drug monitoring programs and enhancing interoperability, and supporting drug take back programs. In addition, we’ve recently announced educational initiatives aimed at teenagers warning of the dangers of opioids and continue to fund grants to law enforcement to help with accessing naloxone.”

ProtestArtistsPhilanthropySackler family
Share
Subscribe to The Art Newspaper’s digital newsletter for your daily digest of essential news, views and analysis from the international art world delivered directly to your inbox.
Newsletter sign-up
Information
About
Contact
Cookie policy
Data protection
Privacy policy
Frequently Asked Questions
Subscription T&Cs
Terms and conditions
Advertise
Sister Papers
Sponsorship policy
Follow us
Instagram
Bluesky
LinkedIn
Facebook
TikTok
YouTube
© The Art Newspaper

Related content

Protestnews
11 March 2018

Nan Goldin leads anti-opioid protest at the Met's Sackler Wing

In their first direct action, the artist and her activist group PAIN tossed prescription pill bottles labelled OxyContin into the moat surrounding the Temple of Dendur and staged a die-in

Helen Stoilas
Artistsnews
2 February 2018

Artists back Nan Goldin’s call to hold Sackler family to account over US opioid crisis

"Maybe the Sacklers don’t care, but we should give them the chance to discuss solutions, and if they rebuff, then f*** them"—Jeremy Deller

Helen Stoilas
Protestsnews
10 August 2021

Activists including the artist Nan Goldin protest bankruptcy settlement shielding the Sackler family from prosecution

Demonstrators plant cardboard tombstones outside a New York courthouse to call attention to Purdue Pharma’s role in deaths from the opioid painkiller Oxycontin

Wallace Ludel