European Ministers Call on Venice Biennale to Exclude Russia
10March 13, 2026
Twenty-two European ministers arepetitioning the organizers of the Venice Biennaleto disinvite Russia from the prestigious event’s upcoming sixty-first edition, to open March 9. Inaugurated by Latvia’s Minister of Culture Agnese Lāce, the joint letter bears the signatures of ministers from Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, and Ukraine.
Since Russia’s Februrary 2022 invasion of Ukraine, the country had been voluntarily absent from the Biennale, which had not prevented it from participating. It was revealed earlier this month thatRussia intends to present a group exhibition at this year’s iteration. The ministers in their letter, addressed to Biennale president Pietrangelo Buttafuoco as well as the event’s board of directors, asserted that the Biennale should bar Russia from this year’s edition, on the grounds that international cultural platforms should not be used to legitimize military aggression or undermine the system of international sanctions.
They also pointed to the Biennale’s moral responsibility to ban the country, quoting Russian-born artist Kirill Savchenkov’s statement on withdrawing from the pavilion in 2022, along with Alexandra Sukhareva and Lithuanian curator Raimundas Malašauskas. Said Savchenkov, “There is no place for art when civilians are dying under the fire of missiles, when citizens of Ukraine are hiding in shelters, and when Russian protestors are getting silenced.”
Ukraine has also lobbied the Biennale to bar Russia from the event. “The Venice Biennale is one of the world’s most authoritative art platforms, and it must not become a stage for whitewashing the war crimes that Russia commits daily against the Ukrainian people and our cultural heritage,” said Ukraine foreign minister Andriy Sybiha and the country’s culture minister, Tetyana Berezhna, in a statement on Sunday.
“We call on the organizers of the Venice Biennale to reconsider their decision to allow the Russian Federation to return and to maintain the principled position demonstrated in 2022–2024.”