New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art will remove Sackler name from galleries after the family's Purdue Pharma was accused of fueling opioid crisis

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City announced on Thursday it is dropping the Sackler family name from its galleries. The Sacklers, major benefactors of the museum, made their fortune as owners of Purdue Pharma, a drug company accused of fueling the opioid crisis.

The Sackler family's name is displayed on seven exhibit spaces at the Met, including the iconic Temple of Dendur — but the name will be taken down. "The Museum and the families of Dr. Mortimer Sackler and Dr. Raymond Sackler have mutually agreed to take this action in order to allow The Met to further its core mission," the museum said in a statement.

The move by the Met follows similar decisions by other institutions to distance themselves from the family. Paris' iconic Louvre museum removed the Sackler name in 2019, according to the New York Times. That same year, Tufts School of Medicine in Boston also dropped the Sackler name.