The University of Oxford in England announced on May 15 that it would remove the Sackler name from buildings, spaces and positions with which it is currently affiliated. The move follows an investigation earlier this year by Irene Tracey, the university’s new vice-chancellor, who is a professor of neuroscience specializing in pain perception and anesthetics. Oxford noted that while “all donations received from the Sackler family and their trusts will be retained by the university for their intended educational purposes”, no new donations have been received from any of these entities since January 2019, and none will be accepted in the future. .
The university’s former Sackler Library (now the Library of Bodleian Art, Archeology and the Ancient World) as well as the Rome Gallery and the Afterlife Gallery are affected by the decision, which was taken with the “full support of the Sackler family”. in Ancient Egypt at the Ashmolean Museum. The name will be removed from three positions funded by family donations, including that of custodian of antiquities at the Ashmolean. In the interest of “historical record,” the university will publicly acknowledge Sackler’s donations on a plaque in its Clarendon building and on the Ashmolean donor board.
Oxford is the latest major institution to remove the name, tainted by family members’ affiliation with the now-bankrupt Purdue Pharma, maker of the highly addictive opioid OxyContin. Artist advocacy group PAIN (Prescription Addiction Intervention Now), based by artist Nan Goldin, has for years lobbied museums to end their associations with the Sacklers, accusing family members of ‘washing away’ profits obtained from the tarnished drugmaker through substantial gifts to museums in exchange for naming rights. The Victoria & Albert Museum rubbed the name of its walls last year, following in the footsteps of institutions such as the British Museum in London, the National Gallery and the Serpentine Galleries; the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York; and the Louvre in Paris.
