Venice Biennale: risk fund does not cover EU suspension – only €300,000 set aside
The 2025 budget refers to the ‘potential risk of the suspension or interruption of the disbursement of European grant instalments’
Key points
Allowing Russia to reopen its pavilion for the first time since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 could cost the Venice Biennale €2 million: this is the amount of funding that the European Union has decided to withdraw in response to Russia’s return to the 2026 edition.
The appeal
However, the game is not over yet. At least not for the foundation led by Pietrangelo Buttafuoco (appointed as president by the Meloni government in March 2023) who reiterated: ‘We will put forward our case in all the relevant forums’, noting that this is a decision that had long been announced and that, therefore, ‘it obliges us to take the next steps already made known’, namely an appeal.
On the eve of a move that now seemed inevitable on the part of Brussels, the Venice Biennale had begun to consider bringing a case before the European Court: a decision resulting from the meeting of the board of directors held on 15 July at Ca’ Giustinian.
The ‘defunded’ project
The project, funded under the Creative Europe Programme (Crea), began in May 2022 and concluded in April 2025: it co-funded ‘industrial’ activities in the film sector, specifically those relating to Venice Production Bridge and Biennale College, with a total budget of 4.387 million euros, of which just under half (2 million) came from Brussels.
‘The essence and distinctive feature of the Venice Production Bridge,’ reads the EU factsheet, ‘lie in its focus on production and in providing producers with a wide range of services, projects and networking events, offering them the entire production chain. All these activities are designed to boost B2B exchanges between European and international professionals. The VPB currently involves over 2,500 professionals.”
