NewsSponsorship
London's National Portrait Gallery and Sackler Trust to 'not proceed' with £1m grant
Mutual decision comes amid controversy over trust's connection to Purdue Pharma, maker of OxyContin, a prescription painkiller linked to the opioid crisis
NewsThe Year in Review 2019
From the MoMA expansion to ‘artwashing’ ill-gotten wealth: the major museum moments of 2019
We look back at the biggest stories of the year
NewsOpioid Crisis
Citing opioid crisis, Tufts University strips Sackler name from its buildings and programmes
Institution declares that the name “runs counter to the school’s mission”
BlogThe Buck stopped here
Nan Goldin brings her empathy and activism to London
NewsSackler family
Nan Goldin brings first PAIN protest to the UK, storming the Victoria and Albert Museum
Demonstrators demand that V&A director Tristram Hunt drops Sackler name
NewsOpioid Crisis
Nan Goldin brings Pain to Purdue Pharma bankruptcy hearings in New York
Demonstrators at the White Plains courthouse kept up the pressure to hold Sackler family accountable in opioid crisis, as a $10bn settlement hangs in the balance
NewsUSA
Sackler family agrees to give up 'entire value' of Purdue Pharma in bid to settle opioid cases
But state attorneys general predict an imminent bankruptcy filing as settlement talks break down
NewsEthics
How ethical can museums afford to be? We ask five major UK art institutions about funding challenges
We find out how mounting public scrutiny of private money could affect the bottom line of London's National Portrait Gallery, the British Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the National Gallery and the Tate
NewsLaw
‘Completely unacceptable’: Nan Goldin attacks proposed settlement in opioid crisis
Artist says the reported deal is a cynical attempt to avoid significant restitution
NewsLaw
Sacklers in talks over multibillion-dollar settlement of opioid crisis lawsuits
Proposed settlement calls for family's company Purdue Pharma to file for bankruptcy and become a public trust distributing profits
NewsSackler family
Musée du Louvre removes all mention of Sackler name from its galleries following protests
Activist group Pain says Paris museum has taped over or taken down plaques dedicated to the eponymous family whose pharmaceutical company is accused of fuelling the US opioid crisis
NewsVictoria & Albert Museum
V&A to mount major Iran exhibition in face of US sanctions
Museum’s director Tristram Hunt says securing loans and sponsorship is “more of a challenge” as tension grows between Trump and Tehran
NewsMusée du Louvre
Nan Goldin’s activist group storms the Musée du Louvre
Pain protestors demand that museum officials rename 12 rooms named after the Sackler family
NewsSackler family
The Met says it will stop accepting gifts from Sacklers associated with Purdue Pharma
The museum cites recent lawsuits tied to the US opioid crisis in its decision to decline future donations from the family
NewsSackler Trust
‘Like being married to a serial killer’: Hito Steyerl denounces Sackler sponsorship of museums
German artist urges art world to rally against cultural funding from embattled family at opening of her show at Serpentine Sackler Gallery
NewsSponsorship
Guggenheim Museum says it 'does not plan to accept any gifts' from the Sackler family
The move follows similar decisions by London museums
NewsSackler Trust
Sackler Trust charity in UK suspends all new gifts
The move is a “face-saving” measure says US photographer and activist Nan Goldin
NewsSponsorship
South London Gallery returned funding to Sackler Trust last year
Plus, Nan Goldin's show at the National Portrait Gallery is expected to go ahead after the trust and London museum decided not to proceed with a £1m grant
NewsSponsorship
Tate to stop accepting donations from the Sackler Trust
The move follows a mutual decision by the National Portrait Gallery and the Sackler Trust to not proceed with a £1m grant
AnalysisMuseums in the changing world order
Museums in the changing world order: a question of ethics
In the first part of a new series, Adrian Ellis looks at the increased public scrutiny of museum boards in the social media age
NewsControversies
Nan Goldin’s anti-opioid activist group storms New York museums
Pain held demonstrations at the Guggenheim and the Met over the weekend
News
The Met is re-evaluating its gift acceptance policy in wake of Sackler lawsuits
Their family’s support “began decades before the opioid crisis” says president and CEO Daniel Weiss
AnalysisThe Year In Review
2018 in museums: big ethics questions dominate the field
Museums are facing greater scrutiny over sponsorship and the artists they choose to display
AnalysisThe Year In Review
From counting muddles to collective cuddles: the art world's highs and lows of 2018
The people, places and things that had a year to remember—or to forget
NewsPhilanthropy
Sackler family—major cultural patrons—amassed $31.2m in offshore HSBC bank accounts, investigation finds
Mortimer Sackler opened a handful of accounts in Switzerland one month before federal prosecutors filed a lawsuit against Purdue Pharma in 2005
NewsEconomics
Andrea Fraser aims to hold US museum boards to account
The artist has compiled an exhaustive analysis of the political affiliations of trustees
NewsFunding
Will museums stop accepting Sackler money in wake of Massachusetts lawsuit?
Eight members of the family are being sued for helping to fuel the opioid epidemic through their pharmaceutical company
NewsPolitics
Nan Goldin supports opioid treatment bill worth $100bn
The photographer calls on Elizabeth Sackler to support proposed law amid family members’ denials of responsibility for health crisis
NewsProtest
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
NewsArtists
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
NewsProtest
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
CommentFunding
Culture is compromised by donations from the Sackler family: we must not accept any more of their money
Anna Somers Cocks on the revelations published in the New Yorker magazine
NewsFunding
Business as usual for museums funded by Sackler opioid money?
Beneficiaries of the family’s largesse deflect or ignore questions about the donors’ role in the drugs epidemic sweeping the US
ArchiveLawsuits
Christie's Sackler maiolica sale off—for now
Collector’s widow overturns court decision
Comment300
'Issue one came out in less degraded times: more idealistic, less puffed up by PR machines'
Anna Somers Cocks, founding editor and chairman, looks back
Anna Somers Cocks