Nan Goldin and P.A.I.N. demand Louvre remove Sackler name from its building

Activists demand that the Louvre refuse any “criminal donations” from the Sacklers because France has also suffered from the opioid crisis due to Purdue Pharma’s branch Mundipharma, Artguide learnt from Artforum.

P.A.I.N. says in a statement: “As the most visited museum in the world, the Louvre should set an example of irreproachable ethics by disengaging from its links to this criminal philanthropy.”

The Louvre’s spokesperson said in a statement that the Sackler Foundation supported the museum financially in 1996-1997 when the institution renovated the rooms dedicated to Persian and Levantine Art. The Louvre has never accepted other gifts from the Sacklers since then, the spokesperson says.

Nan Goldin and the activist group P.A.I.N. continue the campaign against the Sackler Foundation. They say the Sackler family should be held accountable for the opioid crisis in the US and other countries because Purdue Pharma produces the painkiller OxyContin that causes addiction and leads to death in extreme cases.

Activists have already protested outside the Metropolitan Museum, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and other institutions that receive donations from the Sackler Foundation. Some of them have refused to accept funding from the Sacklers.

In March, the Sackler Foundation announced it would suspend donations to museums.