The entire international jury of the Venice Biennale has resigned en masse, throwing the 61st International Art Exhibition into unprecedented turmoil days before its scheduled opening on May 9. The five-member panel, headed by Brazilian curator Solange Farkas, walked out without a formal explanation, though the resignation comes hours after inspectors from Italy’s culture ministry arrived at the Biennale’s headquarters to examine the foundation’s governance. The dispute has its roots in a decision by the same jury last week to withhold awards from artists representing countries whose leaders face International Criminal Court charges — a measure that explicitly targeted Russia and Israel. That stance was immediately condemned by the Italian government, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni describing it as a choice she would not have made, while carefully noting the Biennale’s status as an autonomous institution.

Viewed from Rome, the crisis has become a proxy battle over the boundaries of artistic independence and state oversight. Culture Minister Alessandro Giuli, who has already announced he will boycott the opening in protest at Russia’s participation, dispatched inspectors to examine administrative procedures after weeks of tension with Biennale president Pietrangelo Buttafuoco. Buttafuoco had defended the re-admission of the Russian pavilion — which will open for previews but reportedly close for the duration of the exhibition — as a gesture of conviviality across geopolitical divides. Analysts in Brussels note that the European Union has been watching closely, with a senior commissioner vowing that if Russia were present, the EU would not be in Venice. The Biennale’s attempt to defuse the situation by replacing the jury’s role with two “Visitor Lions” voted on by the public and shifting the awards ceremony to November has satisfied no one. Critics across Italy’s political spectrum see the move as an abdication of curatorial authority rather than a democratic solution.

What began as a narrow dispute over a pavilion has now exposed deeper fractures about how major cultural institutions navigate a world where art, law and foreign policy collide with increasing frequency. The resignation marks the first time in the Biennale’s 130-year history that a jury has quit before the opening, and the institution faces the unenviable task of running one of the world’s most prestigious exhibitions without an official awards panel. Whether the visitor vote can salvage credibility or will deepen the sense of a compromised edition remains an open question. For the moment, Venice has become a stage not for contemporary art, but for a test of whether cultural diplomacy can survive the pressures of a polarised era.