[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/GettyImages-2274176034.jpg?w=1024″]<\/p>\n
\n\tThis year\u2019s Venice Biennale may not have its traditional Golden Lion awards, but Italian cultural minster Alessandro Giuli has revealed the person he thought won this year\u2019s edition: Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose nation made its Biennale return to this year to great controversy.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThere\u2019s no doubt about it. Putin won at the Biennale,\u201d Giuli, who repeatedly denounced Russia\u2019s presence at the event, told the Italian publication Corriere della Sera<\/em> last week.<\/p>\n \n\tHe added that \u201cit doesn\u2019t seem to me that there are people in the Russian pavilion in a position to express dissent against their regime, which is under sanctions. I don\u2019t think the Russian artists currently performing inside the Biennale pavilion are agents of Moscow disguised as artists, but artists from the free world certainly have the right to express dissent against those who govern them.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tRussia\u2019s pavilion was widely denounced by activists, artists, and politicians, many of whom called on the Biennale to remove the nation from its official participation. The European Union even said it would withhold a \u20ac2 million grant to the Biennale amid the row. Giuli himself called for the resignation of a Biennale board member in response.<\/p>\n \n\tBut the Biennale held firm, claiming it did not have the right to remove Russia from the exhibition because the country is recognized as a state in Italy. Moreover, the Biennale said, any permanent pavilion in the Giardini need only notify the Biennale of its intention to participate to be included in the official program. Russia\u2019s pavilion ended up going on view, though not without protests: Pussy Riot and FEMEN led a highly publicized demonstration in front of the structure.<\/p>\n \n\tPrior to the Biennale\u2019s opening, the exhibition\u2019s jury said any nations charged with crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court would not be considered for the Golden Lions. The move would have impacted Israel and Russia. But about a week after the jury\u2019s statement, all of its five members resigned, without an explanation.<\/p>\n \n\tGiuli, who did not address the Israeli Pavilion in his interview, described Biennale president Pietrangelo Buttafuoco as \u201capolitical, as I was too. A highly capable apolitical, as [Italian Prime Minister] Giorgia Meloni said, but in the end he did a favor to a belligerent state like Russia.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe interview was published on May 7. Four days later, on Monday, Giuli reportedly fired two senior aides amid continued controversy over his ministry\u2019s refusal to fund a documentary on Italian student Giulio Regeni, who was killed in Cairo in 2016. Italy blamed Egypt for Regeni\u2019s killing. Giuli said it was \u201cunacceptable\u201d that his ministry would not disburse money for the documentary.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/art-news\/news\/venice-biennale-italy-culture-minister-putin-russia-1234784956\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/GettyImages-2274176034.jpg?w=1024″] This year\u2019s Venice Biennale may not have its traditional Golden Lion awards, but Italian cultural minster Alessandro Giuli has revealed the person he thought won this year\u2019s edition: Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose nation made its Biennale return to this year to great controversy. \u201cThere\u2019s no doubt about it. Putin won at […]<\/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-1929527","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\/1929527","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=1929527"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1929527\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1929527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1929527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1929527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}