Biennale Chief Slams EU for Withdrawing Funding Over Russia’s Presence at Art Exhibition During Film Festival Press Conference: ‘They Are Abandoning Us’
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- Pietrangelo Buttafuoco, Venice Biennale chairman, condemned the EU at Thursday's film festival press conference for withdrawing a €2 million ($2.3 million) grant after Russia was permitted back into the arts exhibition.
- The European Commission's Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) confirmed earlier this week it was terminating the grant to the Fondazione La Biennale di Venezia.
- The €2 million was designated for the Biennale's cinema sector — specifically the Biennale College film fund and Venice Production Bridge — not the arts exhibition where Russia is participating.
- Russia has returned to the Biennale for the first time since pulling out of the 2022 edition following its invasion of Ukraine; it also did not attend in 2024.
- Buttafuoco invoked the Biennale's regulations stating any country with relations with Italy has a right to participate, and said acceding to EU pressure would undermine artistic autonomy and freedom of expression.
- Italy's government, which has oversight over the Biennale foundation, initially clashed with Buttafuoco over Russia's inclusion but declined to sack him and allowed the participation to proceed.
- EU spokesperson Thomas Regnier defended the funding cut, saying taxpayer-funded cultural events 'should safeguard democratic values… values which are not respected in today's Russia.'
Why it matters: The EU is using arts funding as leverage against a cultural institution, and the financial hit lands on the Biennale's cinema programs — not the arts exhibition where Russia is present — creating a collateral-damage dynamic. Buttafuoco's defiance frames the dispute as censorship of artistic autonomy, while Italy's refusal to sack him exposes a lack of unified European policy on culturally isolating Russia.
