Oxford University severed ties with the Sackler family, whose fortune came from opioids, and removed their names from many positions and buildings, including two galleries at the Ashmolean Museum.
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Britain’s Oxford University has severed ties with a major benefactor of the Sackler family, which made its fortune from addictive opioids and is accused of fueling the US epidemic.
Two galleries from the Ashmolean Museum, a university library and three staff positions were selected following an investigation earlier this year by the university’s new vice-chancellor, Irene Tracey. Remove the family name.
Previously, British institutions continued to criticize the institution for retaining the name, even as other important institutions such as british museum In recent years, Victoria & Albert (V&A) has severed ties with Sackler.
Some members of the billionaire Sackler family are best known for founding and owning Purdue Pharmaceuticals, the pharmaceutical giant that makes OxyContin, a prescription painkiller widely blamed for fueling the opioid epidemic in the U.S. drug crisis.
The university said the move, which was approved by its governing board on Monday, also had the “full support” of the Sackler family.
“Oxford has undertaken a review of its relationship with the Sackler family and its trust, including the manner in which their contributions to the University have been recognized,” the university said in a statement.
“Following this review, the University has decided not to use the Sackler name for University buildings, spaces and staff positions,” it said.
As part of the relocation, the Sackler Library will be renamed the Bodleian Library of Art, Archeology and the Ancient World.
However, Sackler’s name will remain on the donation board at Clarendon Arch and the Ashmolean Museum for a “historical record of donations to the University”.
The university also stated that all donations received from the Sackler family and its trusts will be retained for its intended educational purposes, but since January 2019, no donations from the Sackler family or its trusts have been received. New contributions to the Fund.
In 2019, Louvre In Paris, the Sackler title was removed from one of the wings, while in 2021, New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art The name is cut from seven exhibition spaces, including the wing where the Temple of Dendur is located.