European Commission Seeks €2m Venice Biennale Funding Cut

On Saturday 11 July, the European Commission officially recommended that its European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) pull €2 million funding for the Venice Biennale.

The EACEA is tasked with managing funding programmes for education, culture, youth, sport, media and research in the European Union (EU). 

The recommendation marks the latest escalation in a months-long dispute between Brussels and Venice over Russia’s participation at the Biennale. After being absent since 2022, when Russian artists Kirill Savchenkov and Alexandra Sukhareva, along with Lithuanian curator Raimundas Malašauskas, withdrew from the pavilion following Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, Russia reopened its national pavilion this year.

At the time, the artist duo described the war as “politically and emotionally unbearable” and said there was “no place for art” amid the conflict.

Brussels Escalates

The European Commission's executive vice-president for tech sovereignty, security and democracy, Henna Virkkunen, wrote on X on Saturday that the recommendation “follows a thorough evaluation of the Biennale's responses to justify the reopening of the Russian Pavilion.”

It should be noted that it is only a recommendation; the EACEA will make the final call, but it’s expected to take it seriously. 

Virkkunen, a Finnish politician, had reportedly sent several letters to the president of the Biennale, Pietrangelo Buttafuoco, asking him to explain why Russia was allowed to take part. The Commission also reportedly sent a letter to the Italian government.

Both the EU and senior figures in Italy’s government, including culture minister Alessandro Giuli, slammed the decision, but the Biennale has refused to budge. One of its arguments was that the Russian Pavilion was closed after the press preview and never formally opened to the public, therefore didn’t breach European sanctions. 

Henna Virkkunen, courtesy Henna Virkkunen

The Biennale’s top brass also said that blacklisting Russia would amount to censorship, and that was not in the spirit of the world’s biggest art exhibition. 

Recordings of the performances Russia staged during the preview are now shown on a television outside the closed pavilion.

The Biennale's Defence

At the time, the Biennale said it acted “in strict compliance with applicable national and international laws and within the limits of its own powers and responsibilities.” It added that no European sanctions had been “circumvented” and that “the sanctions were rigorously applied.”

The Biennale has also maintained that it is not responsible for deciding which countries take part. “As a general premise, La Biennale di Venezia does not decide on national participation; countries themselves choose whether to take part,” Cristiana Costanzo, the Biennale’s head of press and media relations, told me just before the event opened. 

“Culture in Europe – funded with taxpayers money – should promote and safeguard democratic values,” Virkkunen wrote on X on Saturday. “These values are not respected in today’s Russia.”

However, when Russia announced it was going to open its pavilion this year, Mikhail Shvydkoy, Russia’s delegate for international cultural exchanges and the country’s former culture minister, said: “In our new project, eternity prevails over momentary concerns, culture over politics… unfortunately, not everyone is capable of understanding this.”

The European Commission’s recommendation has riled the Biennale, which quickly responded to the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera over the weekend. It noted that it had learned about the decision from the EU Commission “on X, and not from the relevant technical authorities.”

“We are evaluating every possible step,” the Biennale said. “The affected programmes are continuing and receive only marginal EU co-financing.”

The Biennale did not respond when I asked how much EU money was used to support the Russian Pavilion. I also asked the pavilion’s commissioner, Anastasia Karneeva, the same question, and whether she would like to comment on the European Commission's recommendation.

"Everyone knows that the Biennale does not invite or authorize the national pavilions. Each country decides for itself whether to participate or not. The European Commission asked for preventing the opening of the pavilion," Karneeva said in an email. "It seems that the European Union is punishing the Biennale for refusing to commit an act of censorship. Apparently, this is the kind of freedom Europe’s leaders now claim to defend—the same leaders who condemn censorship in Russia."

A Wider Political Battle

Buttafuoco and the Biennale enjoy the support of The League, Italy’s right-wing populist party led by deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini. He has long been one of Italy’s most pro-Russia politicians, having previously praised Vladimir Putin and campaigned against EU sanctions imposed after Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014.

According to Corriere della Sera, Salvini recently defended the Biennale, saying: “Italian culture does not bow to the dictates of Brussels… The Biennale is history, culture, art, innovation, and freedom.”

“If some Brussels bureaucrat can't understand that, we'll get over it,” he added, saying that The League would ask the Italian government to “fully replenish any resources denied by the EU.”

The background of Buttafuoco, appointed president of the Biennale by Giorgia Meloni’s right-wing government in 2024, has often been cited during the ongoing debate about the relationship between culture and politics. His appointment was viewed by critics as politically significant, given his past as a right-wing journalist.

Whether the €2 million grant is ultimately withdrawn now rests with the EACEA.