Brussels moves to strip Venice Biennale of €2 million over Russian pavilion’s return

The reasons given by the Biennale were deemed insufficient, and the Commission has moved to withdraw funding over the reopening of the Russian pavilion, drawing harsh criticism in Brussels from the League.
The European Commission has given its final backing to the withdrawal of a €2 million grant that had been allocated to the Venice Biennale for the 2025-2028 three-year period. European Commissioner for Democracy Henna Virkkunen announced the decision on the funds earmarked for the Biennale, saying in a post on X that culture in Europe, as it is funded by taxpayers' money, "should promote and safeguard democratic values and that such values are not respected in Russia today".

This stance comes at the end of an assessment of the answers provided by the Biennale regarding the controversial reopening of the Russian pavilion. The move has taken the form of a recommendation to the European Education and Culture Executive Agency, a non-binding act but addressed to the body that has the final say and had already come out in favour of cutting the funds.

The procedure to revoke the grant was launched by the European Commission last April following an announcement by the president of the Biennale Foundation, Pietrangelo Buttafuoco, who confirmed that Russia's pavilion would reopen for this year's edition. The exhibition space had remained closed during the 2022 and 2024 editions as a direct consequence of the invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent introduction of European sanctions against Moscow.

In the first phase, the Commission gave the Biennale Foundation thirty days either to backtrack or to present arguments capable of halting the revocation process.

The European Union then again requested further formal clarifications regarding the true nature of Russia's participation in the Venice event. The Foundation nevertheless decided to press ahead and proceed with the opening, even though in practice the Russian pavilion was only able to operate in a limited way, as it failed to secure the permits needed to organise public events.

Criticism of the Commission's decision
The handling of the affair has prompted strong criticism at international level, with prominent figures such as Russian gallerist Marat Gelman openly accusing Italy of having proved the weak link in the response to Russian aggression.
"The Biennale is history, culture, art, innovation and freedom. If some Brussels bureaucrat fails to understand that, we will live with it. Culture does not bow to Brussels diktats," wrote the League, the majority party led by Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, announcing that it will ask Giorgia Meloni's government, of which it is a member, to make up the funding withdrawn by the Commission.