EU Threatens to Withdraw Funding from Venice Biennale over Russia Pavilion Return

The European Commission has warned it may withdraw funding from the Venice Biennale if organisers allow Russia to participate in the 2026 exhibition.

In a joint statement released on 9 March, the European commissioners responsible for technology and culture, Henna Virkkunen and Glenn Micallef, said the decision to permit Russia to reopen its national pavilion was ‘not compatible with the EU’s collective response to Russia’s brutal aggression’ against Ukraine. They said the EU would examine ‘further action, including the suspension or termination’ of an ongoing €2m grant to the Biennale Foundation supporting several affiliated film initiatives.

The warning follows a letter from culture ministers of 22 European countries, including France, Germany, Poland and Ukraine, to Biennale president Pietrangelo Buttafuoco and the organisation’s board urging organisers to reconsider allowing the Russian Federation to participate in the 61st International Art Exhibition, scheduled from May to November 2026. The ministers said Russia’s participation could project ‘an image of legitimacy and international acceptance’ despite its ongoing war in Ukraine and raised concerns about links between the pavilion project and individuals connected to Russia’s political leadership.

Russia has not participated officially in the Venice Biennale since its 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Earlier this month the Biennale announced the Russian pavilion would reopen for the 2026 exhibition, stating it rejected ‘any form of exclusion or censorship in culture and art’ and that the event should remain a ‘place of dialogue, openness and artistic freedom’.

Buttafuoco defended the autonomy of the Biennale’s governing committee, saying ‘closure and censorship are once again left at the gate at the Venice Biennale’.

Ukraine’s foreign ministry criticised the decision, warning the event risked becoming ‘a stage for whitewashing the war crimes that Russia commits daily’. An open letter titled ‘Stop the normalization of war crimes through art’ has received more than 6,500 signatures by 10 March.

Virkkunen and Micallef said cultural institutions should avoid providing platforms to individuals who have supported or justified the Kremlin’s actions in Ukraine, adding that ‘member states, institutions and organisations must act in line with EU sanctions’ and that culture should not be used as a vehicle for political propaganda.

Italy’s ministry of culture has expressed reservations about the decision but said the choice rests with the Biennale’s independent committee.

Russian state media reported that Moscow’s Gnesin Russian Academy of Music will provide artistic direction for the pavilion at the request of Russia’s foreign and culture ministries. The academy hosted a concert last year titled ‘Songs of the Special Military Operation’, the Kremlin’s term for the war in Ukraine.

The pavilion’s commissioner, Anastasia Karneeva, previously headed Christie’s Moscow office and co-founded the exhibition production company Smart Art. Her father, Nikolay Volobuyev, is deputy chief executive of the Russian state defence company Rostec. Smart Art was contracted in 2019 to manage the Russian pavilion for ten years.

Russia’s special representative for international cultural cooperation, Mikhail Shvydkoy, told the state news agency Tass that Russia should participate in major international cultural events whenever organisers are willing to include it.