The National Portrait Gallery in London has become the first major art intuition to give up funds from the controversial Sackler family.
Members of the Sackler family are facing lawsuits over their alleged role in the US opioid crisis and campaigners say the move from the National Portrait Gallery (NPG) to give up the grant is a landmark victory in the battle over the ethics of art funding.
The decision has been hailed as a 'powerful acknowledgement' that certain sources of income should not be justified.
The family, whose company Purdue Pharma LP produces opioid prescription painkiller OxyContin, had been set to provide a £1million donation to the gallery.
The National Portrait Gallery in London (pictured above) is the first major art institution to give up funds from the Sackler family
Speaking to the Guardian a spokesperson for the gallery said that they had agreed with the Sackler family that both parties would not proceed with the donation 'at this time'.
The family denies allegations against them which suggest they participated in 'conspiracy and fraud to portray OxyContin as non-addictive, even though they knew it was dangerously addictive'.
The family claimed that the donation to the gallery's 'Inspiring People' project had been dropped in order to avoid creating a 'distraction' from the hard work the gallery had put in to the initiative.
Despite the decision being revealed as mutual, it could be seen as a major blow to the family's status following a campaign led against them by American artist Nancy Goldin.
Goldin has previously spoken out about being addicted to OxyContin after being prescribed the drug and last week said she was 'happy' with the decision taken by the gallery.
She highlighted the need for other museums and galleries to do the same and reconsider gifts from the Sackler family.
Reflecting on the decision she said: 'They did the right thing. I hope there is a domino effect now; there needs to be.'
She had previously refused a retrospective of her work to be held at the NPG if it accepted the donation and had held protests outside the Guggenheim Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Arts in New York over their links to the Sackler's.
The NPG had been one of many British cultural institutions set to receive donations from members of the family, but had come under fire from artists and campaigners who said that accepting money from them would make the NPG complicit in the damage done by the drugs the family's company produce.
The co –director of campaigning organisation Culture Unstained, Jess Worth told the Guardian that the gallery's decision to reject a
