[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/GettyImages-2274167472.jpg?w=1024″]<\/p>\n
\n\tAccording to multiple media reports, artist Belu-Simion Fainaru, Israel\u2019s representative at the recently opened Venice Biennale, put pressure on the exhibition\u2019s organizers before the show\u2019s jury abruptly resigned last week.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhen that five-person jury quit, it did not state its reason for doing so. But prior to departing the Biennale, the jury, which been charged with selecting the winners of the Biennale\u2019s Golden Lions, said that it would not consider nations who were charged with crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court. That would have applied to Israel and Russia, both of which are showing at the Biennale.<\/p>\n
\n\tLast week, the Italian news agency Adnkronos ran two reports about what it said precipitated the jury resignation, one of which featured news that Fainaru had reportedly alleged \u201cracial discrimination\u201d and \u201cantisemitism\u201d and threatened to take his claims to the European Court of Human Rights. The Biennale then told the jury that its members could \u201cbe held personally liable for damages in the event of a dispute,\u201d according to Adnkronos.<\/p>\n
Hyperallergic<\/em> reported on Wednesday that it had confirmed that Fainaru made threats of legal action. A Biennale spokesperson told Hyperallergic<\/em> that the reports were true but declined to comment further.<\/p>\n \n\tThe remarks reported by Adnkronos track with quotes gave the New York Times<\/em> when the jury resigned. \u201cTheir decision discriminated against me on a racial basis,\u201d Fainaru told the New York<\/em>Times<\/em>, adding, \u201cI\u2019m an artist and have equal rights, and I can\u2019t be judged by belonging to a country or a race. I should just be judged on the quality and message of my art.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/art-news\/news\/israel-artist-pressure-venice-biennale-jury-resignation-1234784468\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/GettyImages-2274167472.jpg?w=1024″] According to multiple media reports, artist Belu-Simion Fainaru, Israel\u2019s representative at the recently opened Venice Biennale, put pressure on the exhibition\u2019s organizers before the show\u2019s jury abruptly resigned last week. When that five-person jury quit, it did not state its reason for doing so. But prior to departing the Biennale, the jury, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,226],"class_list":["post-1923453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-artnews-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1923453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1923453"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1923453\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1923453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1923453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1923453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}