Nigeria, May 4 -- The jury at the Venice Biennale Art Exhibition have outdone themselves. Few juries at any art or literary festival can be trusted at the best of times, their judgment likely to be swayed by factions, self-interest and the ethically sapping succour of the gravy train (the global art scene is an enormous racket after all), but to see such figures take a moral stand is a peculiar thing indeed.

The stand in question, which took the form of a mass resignation, was initiated in response to the decision to permit Russian participation for the first time since the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, even if the country had self-absented itself. (Russia, indeed, has its own permanent exhibition space in the Giardini.) In a ters...