Did you know Vermont went to “war” last September? “We’re going to war with Big Pharma” said Burlington Police Chief Brandon del Pozo along with Attorney General TJ Donovan at a press event to announce that Vermont had joined 23 other states suing the manufacturer of OxyContin, Purdue Pharma. “The basis of our lawsuit is this: Purdue Pharma lied, they misrepresented, they fabricated, they deceived, and they spread falsehoods, and they made billions off of it and they created a path of destruction that the state of Vermont is still reeling from,” Donovan said.
And later Governor Scott announced he wanted to support the effort too, although he accepted and will not return campaign donations from Purdue.
The “war” against Purdue Pharma that Vermont joined is being fought on a second front, and the Sackler family — the owners — are beginning to feel heat. Thanks to OxyContin, their wealth rivals that of the Walton (WalMart) and Rockefeller families. The Sacklers are known for their (upscale) philanthropy, and accordingly have donated to and funded dozens of well known museums and universities around the world. Those institutions are now being targeted.
The Guardian.com reports on a recent demonstration: US art photographer and activist Nan Goldin brought the Guggenheim Museum in New York to a standstill on Saturday night as thousands of fake prescriptions were dropped into the atrium to protest against the institution’s acceptance of donations from the family who owns the maker of OxyContin – the prescription painkiller at the root of America’s opioids crisis.
Once addicted herself to OxyContin, Nan Goldin is quoted in January telling Art Forum magazine: “They have washed their blood money through the halls of museums and universities around the world,” she wrote. “We demand that the Sacklers and Purdue Pharma use their fortune to fund addiction treatment and education. There is no time to waste.”
In New York these institutions are recipients of Sackler family foundations:
- American Museum of Natural History’s Sackler Educational Laboratory
- Dia Art Foundation’s Sackler Institute
- Guggenheim Museum’s Sackler Center for Arts Education
- Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Sackler Wing
Seventeen major arts and educational institutions in the UK are major recipients as well as others in France (The Louvre) and Germany.
And even right here in Vermont the Arthur M. Sackler Foundation gave 313 historical Ancient Near Eastern, Chinese, Korean, Byzantine, Islamic, and Pre-Columbian American art objects to the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center in 2017 according to a press release.
Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey alleged in a recent 274 page Purdue suit memorandum that: “[…] the Sacklers flooded Massachusetts with sales reps, influenced state legislation, and financially backed medical facilities and universities so they could tout Purdue opioids.” If these charges are any indication of what is to come, that family’s name may not be what famous-image-minded international institutions want over their front entrance or on their donor list.
The Sacklers did what all upper echelon corporados do: privatize profit and socialize cost/consequences. Is there no PR advisor to these robber barons who might recommend they fund an addiction treatment center in every state instead of more art museums for the rich?