Venice Biennale risks losing EU funding over planned Russia involvement

The European Commission has warned it will cut funding for the Venice Biennale if organisers go ahead with plans to include Russia.The commission reiterated that any breach of ethical standards by the art festival would be treated as a violation of contract, leading to suspension of the €2m (£1.7m) agreement.Commission spokesperson Thomas Régnier said he could not pre-empt a decision from EU lawyers as to whether the contract had been broken, but stressed the decision to include Russia was not in line with European values and ethical standards.“The commission condemns the decision by the Fondazione Biennale to allow Russia to participate in the 2026 Biennale art exhibition,” he told reporters. “Because culture in Europe should promote and safeguard democratic values. It should foster open dialogue, diversity and freedom of expressions. These values are currently in today’s Russia not honoured.”“If there is a breach of the contract … the commission will terminate or suspend the contract,” he said. The €2m EU grant supports film projects at the contemporary arts show.Biennale organisers said last week that Russia would be allowed to take part in the art exhibition, which runs from 9 May to 22 November, triggering an outpouring of anger and accusations from Ukraine that it was offering “a stage … for whitewashing war crimes”.Foreign and culture ministers from 22 countries have called on the organisers to rethink, citing the “systematic destruction of Ukraine’s cultural life and heritage” including the killing of at least 342 artists, damage or destruction of 1,685 cultural heritage sites and 2,483 cultural facilities. “In this context, granting Russia a prestigious international cultural platform sends a deeply troubling signal,” wrote ministers from mostly EU countries and Ukraine.The letter was addressed to the Biennale’s board and its president, Pietrangelo Buttafuoco, a rightwing journalist and public intellectual, who was appointed to the post in 2024 by Giorgia Meloni’s nationalist government.Buttafuoco told La Repubblica last week that he had invited people “from all areas of conflict to share their points of view”. “We believe that where there is art, there is dialogue,” he said.Meloni, despite previous sympathies towards Russia, has been a strong supporter of Ukraine since the full-scale invasion of 2022. Her government opposes the Biennale’s decision.Earlier this week the European Commission vice-president, Henna Virkkunen, and EU commissioner for culture, Glenn Micallef, issued a statement condemning the Biennale’s decision. “Should the Fondazione Biennale go forward with its decision to allow Russia’s participation, we will examine further action, including the suspension or termination of an ongoing EU grant to the Biennale Foundation,” they said.