Paris (AFP)

Their controversial surname, present in several rooms of the museum, was controversial: the Louvre recently masked the name of the Sackler family, wealthy American patrons whose pharmaceutical company is accused of being the main cause of the opiate crisis in the United States. United.

On Wednesday, the panels of several rooms devoted to Eastern Antiquities were covered with pieces of tape to hide the mention "wing Sackler", still engraved on the plates, said an AFP journalist. Contacted, the museum was not able to specify when the cache had been placed.

This section of the Louvre bore the name of the American family since a donation from him in 1996. In early July, the American PAIN (Pain Addiction Intervention Now) had organized a demonstration in front of the museum to ask him to rename this wing.

Led by former drug addict Nancy Goldin, the organization is campaigning to encourage cultural institutions to move away from the Sackler family, given its role in the opioid crisis that is responsible for tens of thousands of deaths in the United States. United.

The president of the Louvre, Jean-Luc Martinez, reacted Tuesday on RTL by explaining that the museum has "not to rename these rooms since they no longer bear the name of Sackler": the internal rules of the institution provide that the "naming" of a room lasted "20 years" maximum, he had explained. Under the name: the name "Sackler" would not be associated with the Louvre since 2016.

Would the museum have forgotten to erase the "Sackler Wing" endorsements on its panels for three years? When asked about this, the Louvre declined to comment further.

"It's a satisfaction, even if it is a little subdued, given the way the Louvre acts," responded a spokesman for PAIN, hailing this hold. The association "has the policy of congratulating the institutions that make these kinds of decisions, we would just like it to be done officially," he added.

In recent months, the National Portrait Gallery, the Tate Gallery in London, the Metropolitan Museum or the Guggenheim in New York have given up the Sackler's donations in the face of this controversy. But the Louvre "is the first to be renamed and it will be an example followed by other museums," he hoped.

Highly influential in New York's Gotha, the Sacklers built their reputation through patronage, and built their fortunes on OxyContin, a powerful painkiller accused of being at the root of the opiate crisis that, according to the authorities US health care, made 47,000 overdose deaths in the United States in 2017.

Their laboratory, Purdue Pharma, is accused of pushing the medical profession to overprescribe its flagship drug, while it knew its addictive effects, which contributed to Americans' growing dependence on opiates and pushed consumers to stronger drugs. like fentanyl and heroin.

© 2019 AFP