Tate has become the latest institution to give up funds from the controversial Sackler family - amid allegations it helped fuel the US opioid crisis.
The Sackler family, which runs a trust in its name, has given money to museums around the world, including the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art and London's Tate Modern.
But now Tate, which has previously accepted millions from the Sackler Trust, has said it is 'not minded' to accept any further funding - soon after the National Portrait Gallery also cancelled a £1 million donation from the Trust.
The Sackler family from left to right: Dr. Theodore Shapiro, Dr. Jack Barchas, DR. Susan Shack Sackler, Dr. Kathe Sackler, Dr. Carla Shatz, Dr. BJ Casey, Dr. Jay Gingrich and Dr. Robert Michels
Tate (Tate Modern is pictured), which has previously accepted millions from the Sackler Trust, has said it is 'not minded' to accept any further funding in the wake of the allegations
Purdue Pharma is the maker of the prescription opioid painkiller OxyContin (pictured)
The Trust is run by the family that owns Purdue Pharma, seller of prescription painkiller OxyContin - a drug for which the family is facing allegations of conspiracy and fraud for allegedly portraying as non-addictive. Something which the family has 'vigorously denied'.
Speaking on BBC's Newsnight this evening, Marie Balshaw, who has been Tate's director since 2017, said the organisation had no plans to accept further money from the trust.
'We have received money from the Sacklers in the past, before anyone was aware of any of the issues that the National Portrait Gallery has been looking at in relation to their donation,' she told Newsnight's Kirsty Wark.
'At the present time, we're not in any discussion with the foundation about receiving a gift, and our trustees at the moment are minded not to accept one.'
She added that where Tate's resources come from, is 'something that is always considered by an ethics committee' and that decisions were made by trustees on a case by case basis.
'Reputational issues are something that's part and parcel of life of running an organisation like this one... you can't not think about these issues,' she said.
This file photo shows the outside of Purdue Pharma at the company's offices in Stamford, US
The National Portrait Gallery in London (pictured) has also given up funds from the Sackler family
Her comments are the latest from the leaders of artistic institutions who have severed ties with the Sackler Trust following controversy over the family's ownership of Purdue Pharma.
The company is facing lawsuits in America alleging that it sold the medicine as a drug with a low chance of causing addictions, despite knowing this was not true.
The US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention has said that opioids - a class of drug which includes everything from heroin to legal painkillers - were involved in almost 48,000 deaths in 2017.
News that the National Portrait Gallery had cancelled a £1 million donation from the Sackler family emerged on Wednesday.
Speaking to the Guardian, a
