THE V&A museum in Dundee has removed signs featuring the Sackler family name due to their alleged links to the opioid crisis in the USA.
The family owns Purdue Pharma, the company which manufactures the painkiller OxyContin.
The drug has been linked to a dramatic increase in the number of opioid overdose deaths in America.
The Sackler family was hit with a series of lawsuits which claimed they aggressively marketed OxyContin while simultaneously misleading doctors and patients about the risks of addiction and overdose.
Despite denying the allegations the family ultimately reached a £4.85 billion settlement, with the money earmarked for spending on addiction treatment programmes.
Before Dundee’s V&A museum opened in September 2018, it received a £500,000 donation from the Sackler Trust.
A plaque placed in the entrance hall of the museum included the names of major donors to the museum, including the Sacklers.
However, the Sackler name has now been removed from the plaque – although bosses state that the money is not being returned.
A spokesperson for V&A Dundee said: "Along with many other cultural organisations in the UK and abroad, V&A Dundee has removed signage relating to the Sackler Trust.
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"It was agreed by V&A Dundee's Board to remove the final piece of Sackler Trust crediting in August 2023."
"V&A Dundee, like other organisations who have removed crediting, is not in talks to return the historic capital support received for the creation of the museum, which were made before V&A Dundee opened in 2018."
The V&A in London removed any reference to Sackler donations in its arts education centre in 2022.
It comes in the wake of numerous dramatisations of the Sackler family’s role in marketing OxyContin, including drama series such as Dopesick on Disney+ and fictionalised Painkiller on Netflix.
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