EU Puts Biennale on Notice

The European Commission has given the Venice Biennale until May 11 to answer accusations that letting Russia return could breach European Union sanctions, with €2 million in funding at risk. (artnews.com) The warning came in a letter sent on April 10 by the European Education and Culture Executive Agency to Biennale president Pietrangelo Buttafuoco, according to reports by ARTnews and Euronews. The money under review is a grant tied to the 2028 edition, which Brussels said it could suspend or terminate. (artnews.com, euronews.com) The Commission’s argument is that the Biennale appears to have accepted a Russian “governmental delegation” whose participation is funded and promoted by the Russian state, while granting it a national platform in Venice. Executive Vice-President Henna Virkkunen and Culture Commissioner Glenn Micallef said on March 10 that reopening the pavilion was “not compatible” with the European Union’s response to Russia’s war against Ukraine. (artnews.com, ec.europa.eu) The fight is landing less than a month before the 61st International Art Exhibition opens to the public on May 9, with preview days on May 6, 7 and 8. La Biennale says the 2026 exhibition, titled *In Minor Keys*, will run through November 22 in the Giardini, the Arsenale and other Venice venues. (labiennale.org) Russia’s planned return would be its first official national pavilion appearance since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. In that year, the Russian pavilion closed after its curator and artists withdrew, and in 2024 Russia’s pavilion building in the Giardini was used by Bolivia instead. (artnews.com) The Biennale has defended its position by saying it does not choose national participants and that countries decide their own representation. In a statement reported last month, the institution said it rejects “any form of exclusion or censorship of culture and art” and described Venice as a place of “dialogue, openness, and artistic freedom.” (theartnewspaper.com) Pressure on Venice has also come from elected officials. At least 34 members of the European Parliament signed a March 27 letter calling for all European Union funding to the Biennale Foundation to be suspended if Russia’s participation goes ahead, and Reuters reported that ministers from 22 countries had already urged the Biennale to reverse course. (theartnewspaper.com, kelo.com) Ukraine has moved on its own track as well. The Kyiv Independent reported on April 10 that Ukraine sanctioned five people linked to the Russian pavilion, after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed Decree No. 305/2026 on April 9. (kyivindependent.com) The immediate deadline is now May 11, two days after the Biennale’s public opening. If Venice does not satisfy Brussels before then, the argument over Russia’s pavilion could shift from symbolism to the loss of European Union money. (artnews.com, euronews.com)