As a Wave of UK Museums Cut Ties With the Sackler Family, One Small London Gallery May Have Led the Way

Naomi Rea: Artnet

Following news that the Tate and London’s National Portrait Gallery have dropped funding from members of the Sackler pharmaceutical dynasty, the Art Newspaper has reported that the much smaller South London Gallery actually led the way last year when it returned a £125,000 ($165,000) gift from the Sackler family, which is currently the target of a major new lawsuitbrought by 500 US cities and Native American tribes affected by the opioid crisis.

The South London Gallery, which expanded to a second site in a former firehouse last September, accepted the £125,000 grant from the Mortimer and Theresa Sackler Foundation to support its education center in 2016. But growing criticism of the Sackler’s links to the production of the prescription painkiller OxyContin began to concern the gallery’s director, Margot Heller. …Read More

Image: South London Gallery, 2017. Photo by Andy Stagg.