500,000 Americans died from overdoses of the painkiller OxyContin, a highly addictive painkiller aggressively marketed by the Sackler family through Pardue Pharma. The Sackler name was removed from the V&A’s walls after protest led by the photographer Nan Goldin and the $6 billion lawsuit the Sackler family were ordered to pay in it’s role in the opioid crisis.
Lest We Rembember
No one died or was injured from the 250 kg bomb that was dropped on the V&A on 19th April 1941 yet the event has been memorialised on the walls and the shrapnel scars remain as testimony to the museum’s enduring values in a time of conflict.
Lest We Forget
What do institutions choose to remember and what do they choose to forget?
