The Guardian reports:
Art photographer and activist Nan Goldin brought the Guggenheim Museum in New York to a standstill on Saturday night as thousands of fake prescriptions were dropped into the atrium to protest against the institution’s acceptance of donations from the family who owns the maker of OxyContin – the prescription painkiller at the root of America’s opioids crisis.
Tourists and locals gawped in confusion as Goldin and fellow demonstrators began chanting criticism of the Sackler family, who owns Purdue Pharma. The activists handed out fake pill bottles as sheets of paper fluttered down inside the landmark building.
The protest then moved two blocks south on Fifth Avenue to the steps of the Metropolitan Museum and continued, as the police looked on. The Met has a wing named after the Sacklers and paid for by the family. The Guggenheim features the Sackler Center for Arts Education.
My first trip to the Guggenheim. Sackler family made Billions pushing Oxycotin and lying about the dangers. Fuck them and their money they shouldnt be honored in museums, they should be prosecuted! #SacklersLiePeopleDie pic.twitter.com/s0CwZ5YBYF
— Charles Khan (@Charles_Darkley) February 10, 2019
I didn’t know what was happening today @Guggenheim as people starting yelling. An incredibly moving protest against Big Pharma @sacklerpain #sacklerpain pic.twitter.com/MB0vh5GHRF
— Krista Parry (@kristaparry) February 10, 2019
Video: Art photographer and activist Nan Goldin leads a protest at the Guggenheim Museum in New York against it and other cultural institutions taking donations from the Sackler family that owns the maker of OxyContin opioid painkillers. pic.twitter.com/l0EyyiGhcJ
— Joanna Walters (@Joannawalters13) February 10, 2019
Protestors tonight marched down Fifth Avenue in NYC from the Guggenheim Museum to the Met demanding the institutions remove the name of big donors—the Sackler family, owners of the company that products Oxycotin. Full report this week on Brian Ross Investigates @LawCrimeNetwork pic.twitter.com/7RHo67I3sI
— Brian Ross Investigates (@BrianRoss) February 10, 2019
Via @katieholten || At the @Guggenheim now, protests erupt. Banners. 200 DEAD EACH DAY, throwing leaflets as prescriptions. This post is an act of solidarity || #decolonizethisplace #shameonsackler #takedowntheirname #sacklerpain #opiodcrisis || #swipeleft pic.twitter.com/ERUZJzTnDS
— DecolonizeThisPlace (@decolonize_this) February 10, 2019
Tonight @Guggenheim, protestors wanting the Sackler name off museum galleries due to the family’s connection with oxycontin production. Falls under the “you never know what’s going to happen in NYC” category.@ABC7NY @NBCNewYork @CBSNewYork @PIX11News @NY1 #itweetmuseums pic.twitter.com/goOByKvmG6
— Carol Ward (@carolsward_prb) February 10, 2019