Over the weekend, a group of more than 100 protestors demanded that the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum refuse further funding from the Sackler Family. Led by the American photographer Nan Goldin and her organization PAIN (Prescription Addiction Intervention Now), the activists have been targeting the billionaire dynasty and its pharmaceutical company for promoting the use of OxyContin, a highly addictive, narcotic painkiller that is widely considered to be one of "the most dangerous products ever sold on a mass scale."

The demonstrators took over the museum's iconic atrium on Saturday night, dropping thousands of fake prescription notes from the six-story building while others handed out pill bottles to confused museum-goers. As Goldin staged a die-in on the lobby floor, banners hung from the spiraling hallways with messages such as "SHAME ON SACKLER," and "400,000 DEAD." Afterwards, the protest moved onwards to the Metropolitan Museum, where one of the wings is paid for and named after the Sackler clan.

The actions are intended to pressure the museum and other institutions to distance themselves from questionable funding sources such as the Sackler's, who have amassed an impressive array of signage in their honor. Beyond the Sackler Wing at the Met and the Sackler Center at the Guggenheim, there is a wing at the Louvre, a gallery at Serpentine, a courtyard at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum, an educational lab at the American Museum of Natural History, and an escalator at the Tate, all bearing the name. 

Since buying the drug in 1996, the Sackler's Purdue Pharma has become responsible for more than half of prescriptions for OxyContin, which has caused hundreds of thousands of overdoses in the U.S. and  is linked to increased addiction of heroin and other opioids. Goldin, who led the action alongside her activist group, has first hand experience with the dangers of the drug, having dealt with addiction after being prescribed the painkiller following surgery. She and others whom have been touched by the opioid crisis, are hoping to hold the Sackler family accountable, demanding they use their fortune to fund addiction treatment and education, rather than giving it to blue-chip brands such as the Guggenheim.