The NY Times reports on deplatforming at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, stating that the Met and the Sackler family
jointly announced on Thursday that the Sackler name would be removed from seven exhibition spaces, including the wing that houses the Temple of Dendur.
“Our families have always strongly supported the Met, and we believe this to be in the best interest of the museum and the important mission that it serves,” the descendants of Dr. Mortimer Sackler and Dr. Raymond Sackler said in a statement. “The earliest of these gifts were made almost 50 years ago, and now we are passing the torch to others who might wish to step forward to support the museum.” ...
Other museums have refused Sackler money, such as the Serpentine Gallery in London, and some were quicker to remove the Sackler name, including the Louvre in Paris. But since the Met is a leader in the field, its announcement is likely to make more institutions reconsider their own Sackler galleries. ...
The museum had already severed ties to the family’s funding, announcing in 2019 that it would no longer accept gifts from the Sacklers, given their links to the maker of OxyContin.
Two spaces at the Met will continue to bear their Sackler names: the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery in the Asian wing and the Marietta Lutze Sackler Gallery in the Modern and contemporary wing (which will presumably carry over into its renovation).
While the Met would not explain this, both galleries are associated with the family of Arthur Sackler, who died in 1987 before OxyContin’s creation. His side of the family, which has supported institutions like the Smithsonian and the Brooklyn Museum, sold his stake in the pharmaceutical business after his death.
“The Met has been built by the philanthropy of generations of donors — and the Sacklers have been among our most generous supporters,” said Dan Weiss, the Met’s president and chief executive officer. “This gracious gesture by the Sacklers aids the museum in continuing to serve this and future generations. We greatly appreciate it.”
In the immediate aftermath of the Met’s announcement, several other museums with Sackler-named spaces said they currently had no similar plans, including the National Gallery in London — where the Sackler Room contains some of the museum’s most prized works — and the Victoria & Albert Museum, whose entrance is named the Sackler Courtyard.
