Menuhin Festival snubs Big Pharma
mainThe Gstaad Menuhin Festival in Switzerland has turned down private donations from Theresa Sackler, whose family is connected to the opioid manufacturer, Purdue.
The amount declined is just 25,000 Swiss francs (US23,000) on a tital budget of $7m.
We guess they’ll somehow about manage without it.
Tatler is not a magazine often referred to on SD, but it does provide useful background on this dynasty
https://www.tatler.com/article/sackler-scandal
A very well researched article., Still plenty of Sackler venues around a year later, in fact, though perhaps there won’t be new ones.
However the Sacklers made their money, they have done more for culture in the last decades than any other one family, I will bet. The Waltons are not much better, nor was Rockefeller, or Carnegie, or Vanderbilt. We can never afford to discourage donors.
I agree. The dot com billionaires have done nothing for culture.
Maybe arts and culture organizations should take money from El Chapo while they’re at it. The Sacklers are drug pushers dressed up as a pharmaceutical company. As low as those other families may have gone at times, none remotely approached the depths of criminality, disregard for human life and immortality of the Sacklers.
I don’t recall the Rockefellers (who founded U. of Chicago) or Carnegie (all those public libraries) making millions off of selling pain killers and basically encouragein pain pill addiction. Both R & C believed in the concept of thithing: meaning 10% went to charity; that is not the case with the Sacklers either.
A jaw dropping account of America’s problems with opioids is by Sam Quinones
Dreamland: The True Tale of America’s Opiate Epidemic.
The university where I work was the first in America to remove the Sackler name from its buildings and programs, even then it only happened last month and we’re facing potential legal challenges from the family.
As they should. It’s a stupid thing to do.
Your thoroughly detailed and nuanced argument is strong.
Tufts University?
Those hypocrites don’t say anything about giving the money back – just pious PC waffle.
One might respect their decision if they repaid donors.
That’s a stupid decision to have made, as it may discourage other donors. But as you point out, perhaps they feel they can afford to have false virtue.