Criticism has grown over a decision by the Venice Biennale to allow Russia to take part in its prestigious global art exhibition for the first time since the Ukraine invasion.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's government said it opposed Moscow's inclusion in the event, while Lithuania's foreign minister called it "abhorrent".
Last Friday, a cross-party group of European lawmakers published a letter to the Biennale's organisers condemning Russia's inclusion as "unacceptable".
"Such a choice risks lending legitimacy to a regime responsible for ongoing violence and will inevitably damage the reputation and moral standing of the Biennale itself," they wrote.
In the days after Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine, the Biennale - one of Italy's top cultural institutions - banned anyone linked to the Russian government from attending that year's edition.
Russia was also absent at the next event in 2024. However, it is on the list of national participants for the 2026 exhibition, which runs from May to November.
"La Biennale di Venezia is an open institution" and "rejects any form of exclusion or censorship of culture and art", organisers said in a statement Wednesday.
Biennale President Pietrangelo Buttafuoco, who took over in March 2024, said they had invited people "from all the war zones, to share their perspectives".
"We believe that where there is art, there is dialogue," he told the leftist daily La Repubblica.
Artists from Russia, Ukraine and Belarus - a close ally of Moscow that allowed its territory to be used in the invasion - will be in Venice, as will others from Iran, Israel and the United States.
Buttafuoco has drawn criticism for being too close to Meloni's hard-right government, which appointed him.
But Rome, which has strongly supported Ukraine, criticised the decision to readmit Russia.
The culture ministry issued a statement saying the move was made "entirely independently by the Biennale Foundation, despite the Italian government's opposition".
Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kestutis Budrys went further, writing on X that the decision to "roll out the red carpet to Russia's dark cultural diplomacy is abhorrent". - AFP
