National Portrait Gallery drops L1m donor, Sackler Trust

[Eugene]

Source: BBC

National Portrait Gallery drops £1m donor

20 March 2019

A £1m donation to the National Portrait Gallery has been withdrawn because the potential donors are caught up in the US opioid crisis.

The Sackler Trust, run by the family that owns Purdue Pharma, seller of prescription painkiller OxyContin, said the donation might "deflect" the gallery from its important work.

The Sackler family has "vigorously denied" the allegations against it.

The National Portrait Gallery said it supported the family's decision.

The Sackler Trust offered the money in 2016 to go towards the gallery's £35.5m redevelopment. The gallery had been mulling over whether to accept it.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/business-47636057

[Sherman A1]

1. Hopefully the trust will need the money

For legal bills.

May their lives be filled with lawyers.

[procon]

2. Ethics matters, but the lure of easy money, even drug money,

might be too much to resist. Without ethics, probity and rectitude, the people in charge of decision making will hire the best PR firms to come up with the perfect rationale to grease the acceptance of such a large sum.