Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty

Radden Keefe turns to Arthur Sackler’s philanthropic life and his role in restoring a priceless Egyptian archaeological site, the Temple of Dendur. The temple had to be removed from Egypt due to dam construction near the Nile; graffiti within it was a testament to its many visitors through the centuries, from Egyptian grave robbers to French and American visitors. Arthur became interested in the temple through the Metropolitan Museum of Art (the Met), which was free to visitors and heavily dependent on philanthropy. Belonging to its board would be a tremendous social asset to the Sacklers, proof they had lived up to their ambitions and those of their father.

Arthur founded a gallery at the Met, filling it first with Chinese art he had purchased from the museum and then returned to it as a gift, giving himself a significant tax advantage. Arthur also secured an “enclave” at the museum for his collection (101) and a private office for himself and his friend Paul Singer. In 1967, when the museum’s new, ambitious director Thomas Hoving prevailed over those who backed the temple going to the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, DC, he sought out Arthur Sackler as a prospective funder for moving the temple to the Met, an enormous financial and logistical undertaking. Arthur agreed to donate $3.5 million—then a staggering sum—in exchange for extensive naming rights in the new wing of the Met. But Arthur still was not placed on the board of trustees or fully accepted into the exclusive coterie of museum donors. While Arthur felt this was due to anti-semitic, other donors pointed to Arthur’s private use of museum funds. By the time the grand unveiling of the new wing took place, Arthur was under investigation for his role at the museum. His date for the evening was “almost three decades younger than he was, British, and not his wife” (107), suggesting that his personal life also remained unconventional and tangled.

The Sackler family’s domestic relationships—the marriages of the three brothers—illustrate the family’s fortunes, political faultiness, and temperaments. Mortimer Sackler and his first wife Muriel Lazarus had three children: Ilene, Kathe, and Bobby (Kathe, the subject of the Prologue’s deposition, would become a doctor and work at Purdue Frederick). Mortimer made his fortune at Purdue Frederick, bolstering its overseas presence, and became involved with an Austrian woman, Geri Wimmer, in the 1950s. After his mother’s death, Mortimer became a “European playboy” (109), with a villa on the Mediterranean. He and Geri had a son, who was expected to follow in Mortimer’s footsteps since Bobby was seemed too temperamental to be a successor. Arthur Sackler envied and resented Mortimer’s carefree lifestyle; after Sophie’s death, Mortimer and Raymond grew distant from Arthur.

Arthur Sackler’s domestic life remained tangled. His son Arthur Felix proved to be a disappointment as a business successor, while his daughter Denise became an artist with his approval. Marietta remained disconcerted by Arthur’s closeness to his first wife Else, unaware that he had started a relationship with the much younger Jillian Tully. Arthur insisted that Jillian take his name, without informing Marietta or divorcing her.

The changing dynamics between the brothers began when Bill Frolich died in 1971. The division of Frolich’s business interests created more resentments and difficulties. Frolich had purchase yet another business for Arthur: IMS, a marketing analytics company devoted to helping pharmaceutical companies understand drug success and profitability. IMS was left to Raymond and Mortimer Sackler in Frolich’s will. The profits from IMS could not have gone to Arthur in any case because his role at McAdams prevented formal involvement with a rival agency. Raymond and Mortimer took IMS public, netting nearly $37 million for themselves. They then claimed that because their original business agreement meant Arthur had no involvement in international holdings, they had no obligation to share these profits, which soured the relationship between the brothers.

Bobby Sackler’s life spiraled into tragedy, as he struggled with mental health issues and drug addiction. In 1975, possibly while under the influence of PCP, he died by apparent suicide, jumping out of a window in front of his mother.

Arthur Sackler’s personality affected the dissolution of his marriage with Marietta Lutze. Depressed by Arthur’s unavailability, she sought therapy and eventually confronted him. He confessed his involvement with Jillian but did not want a divorce, hoping to run his relationships according to his own wishes. Marietta still threw him a 60th birthday party celebrating his life and accomplishments.

Arthur became increasingly famous in his 60s, granting interviews about his career and relationships with famous people such as Egyptian president Anwar Sadat and Russian-French painter Marc Chagall. The family never spoke of Bobby Sackler’s suicide. Mortimer married his third wife, British schoolteacher Theresa Rowling, and started a new life in London.

Arthur Sackler’s relationship with the Met grew more fractious as his domestic life grew more complex. He became furious when the museum hosted a Valentino fashion show in his private gallery, and tried to prevent information about his private space there from being made public. Museum administrators hoped this incipient scandal might result in them getting Arthur’s collection permanently. The Met’s new director, Phillips Montebello, was less deferential than his predecessors, and Arthur still resented not being a board member. This resulted in Arthur making a large gift to the Smithsonian in Washington, DC, insisting that a new museum be built for his holdings bearing his name.

Arthur refused to accede to Marietta’s requests for a divorce. Finally, desperate, she took an overdose of sleeping pills in front of him at his office. She survived, and Arthur, enraged by what he regarded as an insult, finally agreed to her terms. He married Jillian and moved his art out of the apartment Marietta won in the settlement. Marietta “cried, surrounded by bare shelves and what she thought of as ‘ghost marks’ on the walls, the discolored rectangles where paintings used to hang” (130-31).

One of Arthur Sackler’s late in life triumphs was the Sackler Museum at Harvard. The building was a $10 million extension of the university’s art museum, and the public opening included prominent people like actress Glenn Close, Nobel Prize-winning scientist Linus Pauling, and violinist Itzhak Perlman. Arthur’s Smithsonian museum opened soon after. Arthur took pains to be known mostly as a philanthropist—his published biography for the Smithsonian did not mention his advertising or pharmaceutical career, and future generations of the Sackler family would maintain this secrecy about the source of their wealth.

Arthur became preoccupied by and resentful of his mortality. He also became obsessed with money and Jillian’s spending, even writing her a memo demanding she account for her habits and bring in income of her own. His new marriage was also shaped by a passion for art exhibitions and collections.

In May 1987, concerned about chest pain, Arthur checked in to the hospital anonymously: “As a consequence of all this secrecy, none of his family, apart from Jillian, knew that Arthur was in the hospital. By the time his children arrived to see him, he was dead” (137).

Arthur’s life was publicly celebrated at many of the institutions he had given money to, including Harvard, Tufts University, and the Smithsonian. At a large gathering at the Met, Arthur’s brothers did not speak, though the Mayor of New York eulogized him. For all of Arthur’s preoccupation with reputation and good works, inherited from his own father, “it was too soon yet to take the full measure of his legacy” (138).