Arthur M. Sackler: Biography and Family History by Miguel Angel Benavides Lopez, is available on Amazon.com.  Based on Arthur’s own writings and original documents, it exposes betrayals by family, friends and institutions and demonstrates that he has been cruelly misrepresented for decades.  Readers will discover “The Sackler Family” is not and never was a monolith.

Arthur was a humanitarian whose life was devoted to advancing healthcare, education and culture.  He was diligent, serious, scholarly and ethical.  Media coverage connecting him with the origin of the OxyContin scandal is deliberate disinformation.  Condemnation has focused on him, not the OxySacklers who developed and marketed OxyContin.  Arthur had no involvement with OxyContin or Purdue Pharma and he and his branch of the family did not profit from opioids in any way.  His younger brothers Mortimer and Raymond founded Purdue Pharma in 1991 and it is owned by their heirs. OxyContin was first marketed in 1996.  Arthur died nearly 10 years prior, in 1987. Read the complete Disinformation Campaign article

Jillian Sackler

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READERS COMMENTS:

This book is written by a former employee and admirer of Arthur Sackler who considered him a humanitarian and a citizen of the world.

In order to write from Sackler’s point of view, as was his objective, much of the book quotes him directly, from his publications, newsletters, speeches and letters.

Sackler had a love of medicine and a passion for the arts. He had a particular interest in mental health and in the arts extensive knowledge which led to his own collections and important support for art institutions, both here and abroad.

He also was a generous philanthropist

First published twenty five years after Sackler’s death in 1987, it is worth noting nine years before the production of oxy contin.

This is not an impartial biography, but an extensive one starting with Sackler’s birth and going through his dealings with his brothers and museum directors, not all of which ran smoothly.

The book includes tributes from leaders in all disciplines — the arts, medicine, academia and religion.

Some considered him a Renaissance man. AMAZON

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“Miguel Benavides does a great job capturing Dr. Arthur Sackler and using Arthur Sackler’s own words to tell the story. As someone who worked for Dr. Sackler’s newspapers and followed his life over many, many years, this book tells the story of the person I knew – generous, brilliant, honest, hard-working, and creative. What a tragedy it is that his brothers Mortimer and Raymond have ruined the great family name that he built—the family history should have been a fairy tale, but seems to have turned into a nightmare. It’s disturbing for someone in the know to have witnessed how the press doesn’t report anything about his great life and accomplishments, but rather focuses on trying to connect him to the opioid crisis which he had absolutely nothing to do with. And if you buy into the narrative the press tries to create, you should read the Washington Post op/ed by his widow Jill Sackler. It’s such a relief to be able to read this book and learn the true story of his life through the historical documents that the author used as the reference material. There is nothing like source documents. The most painful part of the book was to read in his own chilling words about the betrayal of Arthur by his brothers Mortimer and Raymond. Of course what Arthur knew about was nothing compared to what happened to his legacy afterwards because of what his brothers did after he died. This book is a must read by anyone who wants to know the true history of the valiant and remarkable life of Arthur Sackler.” AMAZON

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BOOK DETAILS:

Title: ‎ Arthur M. Sackler: Biography & Family History

Author: ‎ Miguel Angel Benavides Lopez

Publisher: ‎ Insight Press LLC (December 24, 2021)

Language: ‎ English

Hardcover: ‎ 284 pages

ISBN-13: ‎ 978-1735778402

Weight: ‎ 1.79 pounds

Now available on Amazon

from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections

 

“As with his European terra-cotta sculptures, Dr. Sackler put together bronze sculptures purchased in Italy, France, the Netherlands and Germany. During the years of forming the collection, he accumulated over fifty European bronze sculptures and by 1985 he determined that it was time to produce a catalogue for them. Consequently, in that year the AMS Foundation for the Arts, Sciences and Humanities asked Anthony Radcliffe, with the collaboration of Lois Katz, to write the catalogue of the collection…

“We had arranged to unveil the European bronze sculpture collection in autumn 1987 at The Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, England, where Director Michael Jaffé, a respected scholar and Arthur’s good friend, was eager to mount the first exhibition. Sir John Pope-Hennesy viewed the collection and pronounced it “impressive”… Following the Fitzwilliam exhibition, the European sculpture collection was due to be shown at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. in 1988, and Carter Brown had promised a permanent gallery. These plans were cancelled following the untimely death of Arthur in May 1987…”

From the Introduction by Lois Katz

By
Anthony Radcliffe & Lois Katz

Edited by
Ian Wardropper, James Draper and Peter Bell from the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Design and Production Coordinator
Miguel Angel Benavides

Photography
Miguel Angel Benavides, Roy Wright and Bill Fredericks

Published by
AMS Foundation for the Arts, Sciences and Humanities

Characteristics:

hardcover
gloss paper
color
280 pages
size: 11×14 inches
Price: N/A

To purchase, please contact the AMS Foundation for the Arts, Sciences and Humanities

A Thousand Masterpieces from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections

 

“A bit of history appears indicated. I started to work as Senior Research Fellow and Consultant to the Department of Far Eastern Art at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, in January 1972. Among the tasks assigned was to organize an exhibition, The Arts of Ancient China, to take place in 1973, selecting all the objects and determining the sequence of their presentation. No catalogue was to accompany the exhibition. Ultimately, I selected approximately four-hundred objects, gathering numerous loans from private collectors to join with the Museum’s own holdings. Dr. Arthur M. Sackler, a major benefactor of the museum, was one of the private collectors who lent a substantial number of objects to the exhibition… The Arts of Ancient China exhibition opened in the winter of 1973… My name was mentioned only in the context of “lender” to the exhibition.

“As I completed preparations for The Arts of Ancient China exhibition, I received a letter from the chief consultant advising me that, having concluded my work on this exhibition, I now was to produce a catalogue for the forthcoming exhibition of Dr. Sackler’s Chinese art collection. Again, the choice of objects was mine. In December 1973, the stipulated date, I handed in my manuscript for the proposed exhibition. Negotiations continued, however, between Dr. Sackler and the chief consultant causing an ever larger number of objects to be included. I worked on the catalogue until 1976.

“In 1974 Dr. Sackler, who had funded other galleries in the museum and given many magnanimous gifts, agreed to provide funds to enable the museum to build the Sackler Wing to house a reconstruction of a first century B.C. Egyptian temple from Dendur, and a special exhibition hall. The first exhibition scheduled for the special exhibition hall was of Egyptian antiquities from the tomb of Tutankhamen; the second was the proposed exhibition Masterpieces of Chinese Art from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections.

“Yet even as Dr. Sackler was making possible the Sackler Wing, the staff at the museum repeatedly cancelled and rescheduled the Sackler exhibition. The department’s chief consultant proposed that it be held five years after the opening of the Wing, when he thought Dr. Sackler would succumb to pressure to give all the objects in the exhibition to the museum…

“It is valid to ask why this catalogue has finally seen print, without the exhibition it was intended to accompany. In 1982 Dr. Sackler agreed to provide a gift of one-thousand masterpieces of Chinese and other Eastern art to establish a museum in his name on the Mall in Washington, D.C., under the aegis of the Smithsonian Institution. Many of the objects I selected for the Sackler Masterpieces exhibition were chosen for the nation…”

From the Introduction by Paul Singer

By
Paul Singer, M.D.

Edited by
Lois Katz, Former Curator of the Arthur M. Sackler Collections

Assistant editors
Lore Holmes, John McLaren & Susan Gilgore

Review Editor
Dr. Thomas Lawton

Design Coordinator
Lois Katz

Design and Production Coordinator
Miguel Angel Benavides

Photography
Otto Nelson

Published by
AMS Foundation for the Arts, Sciences and Humanities

Characteristics:

hardcover
gloss paper
color
572 pages
size: 11×14 inches
Price: N/A

To purchase, please contact the AMS Foundation for the Arts, Sciences and Humanities

Chinese Stone Sculpture from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections at Columbia University

 

…The objects in Treasures Rediscovered are drawn from the collections formed by Arthur M. Sackler, M.D., a graduate of New York University…Today the Sackler collection at Columbia University encompasses almost three thousand objects and are a major source for teaching and research. In addition to five hundred works from China, the collections include two hundred fifty objects from Korea, and nearly two thousand from the ancient Near East and other cultures, ranging in date from Neolithic period to the early twentieth century…Available to students at any stage of their academic careers…these works serve the university’s larger mission of providing instruction in all aspects of the art and culture of China…

from New Light on Chinese Sculpture at Columbia University
by Leopold Swergold

Curator and Project manager
Leopold Swergold

Research Curator
Eileen Hsiang-ling Hsu

Essays by
Stanley K. Abe,
Wendi Leigh Adamek,
Dorothy C. Wong

Catalogue Entries by
Chang Qing,
Eileen Hsiang-ling Hsu,
Annette L. Juliano,
Cary Y. Liu,
Elinor Pearlstein,
Diana P. Rowan 

Published by
The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Art Gallery,
Columbia University in the City of New York

Characteristics:

hardcover
art paper
color
116 pages
size: 11×14 inches
Price: N/A

To purchase, please contact Columbia University

Proceedings of the International Symposium Celebrating the Tenth Anniversary of the Arthur M. Sackler Museum of Art and Archaeology at Peking University

 

…As we celebrate the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the establishment of the Arthur M. Sackler Museum of Art and Archaeology at Peking University, we continue to hold endless respect for Dr. Sackler’s great contributions to the cause of world culture, and his great support of Chinese medicine and culture. Dr. Sackler was a famous American medical scholar, philanthropist, and art collector. He had deep affection for the Chinese people. In the 1930’s he contributed to the work of Dr. Norman Bethune in China during the Sino-Japanese War. In the 1970’s he accepted the invitation of the Chinese government to prepare a report on improving public health. Dr. Sackler had a deep affection for traditional Chinese culture; he also supported the construction of the three Asian art museums; the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery in Washington, D.C.; the Arthur M. Sackler museum at Harvard University; and the Arthur M. Sackler Museum of Art and Archaeology at Peking University.

From the Welcoming Remarks by Director Gao Chongwen

…The Sackler Museum has set a new and very high standard for all museums in China — not just for university museums, but for all museums, public and private alike. The collected artifacts and works of art are important; they are beautifully displayed in handsome galleries, just as the reserve collections are well maintained in suitable equipped storerooms. Not only are the exhibition themes innovative and well conceived, but they present and make sense of both new archaeological finds and new scholarly discoveries. The museum’s publications invariably meet that high standard of excellence we have always associated with Peking University, documenting exhibitions and advancing scholarship…

From the Congratulatory Remarks by Robert D. Mowry

Edited by
Dr. Thomas Lawton

Designed by
Miguel Angel Benavides

Published by
The AMS Foundation for the Arts, Sciences and Humanities.

Characteristics:

hardcover
glossy paper
color
732 pages
size: 8.5×11 inches
Price: N/A

To purchase, please e-mail us your request to amsbooks at sackler.org

Proceedings of the International Conference on “Chinese Archaeology Enters the Twenty-first Century”

 

“This book contains a collection of works from over 50 conference participants from all over the world. It is written in both English and Chinese.

The event was arranged by Mrs. Arthur M. Sackler, the AMS Foundation for the Arts, Sciences and Humanities and the Department of Archaeology at Peking University in celebration of the opening of The Arthur M. Sackler Museum of Art and Archaeology at Peking University.”

Published by The AMS Foundation for the Arts, Sciences and Humanities

Edited by
The Department of Archaeology,
Peking University

Characteristics:

hardcover
color
648 pages
Size: 7.25 x 10.25
Price: $125.00

To purchase, please e-mail us your request to amsbooks at sackler.org

Inaugural Exhibit of the Arthur M. Sackler Museum of Art and Archaeology, Peking university

 

“The inaugural exhibit contained two types of displays: “a permanent study collection to assist teaching Chinese Archaeology at Peking University, and special exhibits illustrating the important excavations conducted by the Archaeology Department which functioned as field training schools for their students..”

Published by The AMS Foundation for the Arts, Sciences and Humanities

Edited by
The Department of Archaeology,
Peking University

Characteristics:

soft & hardcover
color
324 pages
size: 11×14 inches
Price: $125.00

To purchase, please e-mail us your request to amsbooks at sackler.org

from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections

 

“…The bronzes from the Eastern Zhou period, 8th to 3rd century BC, are the subject of this third and concluding volume of the comprehensive catalogue of the collection. In a thorough and up-to-date introduction, Dr. Jenny So, Assistant Curator of Ancient Chinese Art at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, gives a detailed account of the history of Eastern Zhou bronzes. Particularly valuable is Dr. So’s systematic use of the latest archaeological discoveries to trace regional and chronological developments and to study the political context in which bronzes were made and used…”

By
Jenny So

General Editor
Trudy S. Kawami

Edited by
Naomi Noble Richard

Published by The Arthur M. Sackler Foundation in association with the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution

Distributed by
Harry Abrams, Inc

Characteristics:

hardcover
glossy paper
color
524 pages
size: 11×14 inches
Price: N/A

To purchase, please e-mail us your request to amsbooks at sackler.org

from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections

 

It is a comprehensive study of the Western Zhou Ritual Bronzes, it should serve as a referenced for anyone interested in the study of Chinese Bronzes. It engages us in the actual processes involved in the making of this fantastic art, and doing so, allows us to enrich our appreciation of these works of art. It is a study of a collection that has no parallel, not only in the number of works for research but in the quality of the Zhou bronzes.

This volume, published in 1990, is the second of a three part series.

By
Jessica Rawson

Project Coordinator:
John M. Rosenfield

Edited by
Naomi Noble Richard

Published by The Arthur M. Sackler Foundation and the Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Harvard University.

Distributed by Harvard University Press

Characteristics:

hardcover
glossy paper
color
776 pages
size: 11×14 inches
two volumes IIA & IIB w/case
Price: N/A

To purchase, please e-mail us your request to amsbooks at sackler.org

in the Arthur M. Sackler Collections

 

“…Dr. Bagley, in this scholarly work, has enriched us with his unfailing critical sense and insightful observations about both the aesthetic and technical processes of this art form. As some of the lengthy inscriptions in the late Western Zhou dynasty bronzes say, “May sons and grandsons for ever cherish and use this vessel,” so would we hope that the commitment and creativity manifested in this volume be cherished forever along with the magnificent bronzes they glorify” Arthur M. Sackler, M.D.

“This is a wonderful book. It belongs not only in every art-historical library but in many general libraries as well. It uses art to stimulate thought about the value of cultural diversity and about the too little studied role of technology in human history. No one should miss it who finds pleasure in looking at objects, or who is interested in the nature of perception, or who wishes to understand a work of art from the point of view of the artists who gave it form.” Cyril Stanley Smith

Introduction by
Robert W. Bagley

Project Coordinators:
Lois Katz
John M. Rosenfield

Published by The Arthur M. Sackler Foundation and the Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Harvard University.

Distributed by Harvard University Press

Characteristics:

hardcover
glossy paper
color
600 pages
size: 11×14 inches
Price: $ N/A

To purchase, please e-mail us your request to: amsbooks at sackler.org

from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections

 

“…The forming of this collection has been an intellectual and aesthetic adventure by a research psychiatrist who fully understands the procedures of scholarship, its frustrations and its great rewards…

…Our intention is to introduce the collection…to the general public and also to emphasize the aesthetic, expressive qualities of the Chinese ritual bronze vessel…”

Introduction by
Dawn Ho Delbanco

Edited by
Lois Katz

Published by The Arthur M. Sackler Foundation and The Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University

Characteristics:

hardcover
color
160 pages
size: 11×14 inches
Price: N/A

To purchase, please e-mail us your request to: amsbooks at sackler.org

Chinese Paintings from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections

 

“This volume breaks new ground in the application of Western art-historical methods to the study of Chinese art, and its scholarly importance is matched by its lavish presentation.
The emphasis of the Sackler collection in New York and Princeton is not only in the intrinsic quality of its acquisitions but also on their value for research. Both considerations governed the selection of the paintings that are the subject of this study: 41 works by 24 artists who lived between the mid-fourteenth and twentieth centuries…”

Essays by
Marilyn
and Shen Fu

Distributed by Princeton University Press

Characteristics:

hardcover
color
376 pages
size: 11×14 inches
Published in 1973
Price: N/A

To purchase, please e-mail us your request to amsbooks at sackler.org

from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections

 

“Piranesi’s genius will long be celebrated. His was an epochal achievement, a unique vision of what was to come…

…Appreciation of Piranesi’s genius grows both with time and with exposure to its manifestations. This collections of his works has afforded us a unique opportunity to have and to hold the beautiful fruits of a creative imagination…

…These were his plans… for the expansion of Rome’s ancient Basilica of S. Giovanni Laterano…”

The Avery Architectural Library and the Arthur M. Sackler Foundation dedicate this catalogue to the memory of
Rudolf Wittkower (1901-1971)

Edited by
Lois Katz & Jessica Berman

Characteristics:

hardcover
color
312 pages
Size: 7.25 x 10.25
Price: N/A

To purchase, please e-mail us your request to amsbooks at sackler.org

European Terra-Cotta Sculpture from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections

 

“…Dating from the fifteenth through the twentieth century, the Sackler sculptures provide an unusually comprehensive historical overview of terra-cotta in post-medieval European Art…

…no one has ever attempted to make a comprehensive collection of terra-cottas, and to the best of my knowledge, there has never been an exhibition of terra-cottas that can begin to match the scope and quality of this collection…”
Seymour Slive
Director of the Fogg Art Museum

Introduction by
Paul Clifford

Assisted by
Alastair Laing

Edited by
Lois Katz
Curator, Arthur M. Sackler Collections

Published by The Arthur M. Sackler Foundation & The Fogg Art Museum

Distributed by Harvard University Press

Characteristics:

hardcover
color
298 pages
size: 11×14 inches
Price: $125.00

To purchase, please e-mail us your request to amsbooks at sackler.org

Pre-Columbian Sculptured and Painted Ceramics from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections

 

“…in one of the worst examples of imperial exploitative savagery, an ‘advanced’ European nation brought down the indigenous ancient civilizations of Peru and Mexico…-the thoughtless greed with which they melted down objects of the greatest beauty, a heritage of all mankind, into gold bullion-and the brutality with which, in the name of faith, they destroyed the culture of other peoples seven to eight thousand miles from their own country.”

Introduction by
Paul Clifford

Essays by
Elizabeth P. Benson
Maureen E. Maitland
Michael E. Moseley
Donald A. Proulx
Alan R. Sawyer

Edited by
Lois Katz
Curator, Arthur M. Sackler Collections

Published by The AMS Foundation for the Arts, Sciences and Humanities
& The Arthur M. Sackler Foundation

Characteristics:

hardcover
color
344 pages
size: 11×14 inches
Price: $125.00

To purchase, please e-mail us your request to amsbooks at sackler.org

Pre-Columbian Painted and Sculpted Ceramics from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections

 

“…an art of superb sublimation focusing creative forces, condensing and directing aesthetic energies into the development of a distinctive as well as distinguished corpus of potted, painted and sculpted ceramics..”
Arthur M. Sackler, MD

Essays by
Doris Stone
Dr. Jane Day
Robert Stoetzer

Introduction by
Paul Clifford

Edited by
Lois Katz
Curator, Arthur M. Sackler Collections

Characteristics:

hardcover
color
308 pages
size: 11×14 inches
Price: $125.00

To purchase, please e-mail us your request to amsbooks at sackler.org