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A list of what carries the Sackler name (and what doesn’t anymore)

A Tufts University School of Medicine employee removed Arthur M. Sackler’s name from a building at 145 Harrison Ave.David L. Ryan/Globe Staff

The Sackler family has its name on buildings throughout New England and across the world — or at least it used to. But like Tufts University, many institutions are reconsidering their relationship with the family that owns Purdue Pharma, the maker of the pain relief drug OxyContin, which has been blamed for thousands of deaths.

Many museums, universities, and other institutions no longer want to be linked to the Sackler name. Here’s a sampling of the family’s extensive ties. Some groups are now seeking to separate themselves from the Sacklers, but others are not.

1. Tufts University: The Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences; the Arthur M. Sackler Center for Medical Education; the Sackler Laboratory for the Convergence of Biomedical, Physical and Engineering Sciences; the Sackler Families Collaborative Fund for Cancer Biology Research; and the Richard Sackler Endowed Research Fund. The Sackler name will be removed.

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2. Harvard University: The Arthur M. Sackler Museum. President Lawrence S. Bacow said it would be “inappropriate” to remove the name because of “legal and contractual considerations” and because Arthur Sackler died more than a decade before the company started selling OxyContin.

3. Yale University: The Raymond and Beverly Sackler Institute for Biological, Physical, and Engineering Sciences; endowed professorships at the School of Medicine. Yale stopped accepting donations from the Sackler family earlier this year.

4. University of Connecticut: The Raymond and Beverly Sackler Music Composition Prize; the Raymond and Beverly Sackler Master Artists Institute; the Raymond and Beverly Sackler Artists in Residence Program; the Raymond and Beverly Sackler Fund for Genetics and Molecular Medicine; the Raymond and Beverly Sackler Assistant Professorship; and the Raymond and Beverly Sackler Center for Biomedical, Biological, Physical, and Engineering Sciences. UConn is redirecting about $200,000 in remaining Sackler funds to addiction research and education.

5. Columbia University: The Sackler Institute for Developmental Psychobiology. The university announced earlier this year it won’t accept further donations from the family.

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6. Smithsonian Institution: The Arthur M. Sackler Gallery. The Smithsonian has said it is legally bound to keep the name.

7. Louvre Museum: The Sackler Wing of Oriental Antiquities. The museum removed the name in July 2019.

8. Tate Gallery group: The museums accepted about $5 million from Sackler-tied foundations but announced earlier this year that they would stop accepting money.

9. National Portrait Gallery: The London museum turned down a $1.3 million pledge from the Sackler family earlier this year.


Deirdre Fernandes can be reached at deirdre.fernandes@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @fernandesglobe.