U.S. Pavilion in Venice Is About US$1 Million Short of Bringing Alma Allen's Sculptures Home

The nonprofit behind the U.S. Pavilion at the Venice Biennale is roughly US$1 million short of the money it needs to take the show down and ship Alma Allen's sculptures back to the United States, ArtNews reported on 29 October 2026.

The pavilion is the American national building at the Venice Biennale, the long-running art exhibition held across the Italian city. The American Arts Conservancy, a nonprofit, runs it. The group raised US$1.4 million against a projected budget of just under US$2.5 million.

Allen is an American sculptor based in Mexico. For the 2026 Biennale, he installed five sculptures in front of the pavilion building and about 20 works inside it, according to ArtNews's May review of the show.

The problem now is getting the work out of Italy. The pavilion has no storage space for the sculptures. The Guggenheim Foundation owns the building and has no room to store them either, ArtNews reported. The New York Times reported that the sculptures may be stranded in Italy.

Jenni Parido, the commissioner of the U.S. Pavilion, is the person who runs the conservancy. In a letter obtained by the Times, she wrote that the final phase of the project presented financial challenges she was working to resolve. A commissioner is the official who organises a country's pavilion at the Biennale.

The U.S. government paid part of the bill. The State Department provided a US$375,000 grant, and private donors were expected to cover the rest. The State Department told the Times it was not involved in raising that money. The conservancy began seeking donations in April, Artnet News reported at the time.

For comparison, the American presentation at the 2024 Biennale cost about US$5 million. The 2022 edition cost nearly US$7 million, ArtNews reported.

The way the pavilion was chosen has also changed. The Trump administration scrapped the traditional process, which relied on proposals from arts institutions and an independent review panel. Parido got the job after being recommended by Erin Scavino, who heads the State Department's Art in Embassies program. ArtNews also reported that Parido previously ran an upscale pet boutique in Florida.

Allen has said that neither Parido nor the exhibition's curator, Jeffrey Uslip, visited his studio to see the sculptures before the show, according to ArtNews and the Times.

Behind the headline figures are the people who make the show travel. Crates have to be built, works taken down and packed, and transport booked for every piece. Those costs fall due after the exhibition closes, which is why the gap of about US$1 million matters now, not later. Until the money is found, the question of who can stand in front of Allen's sculptures, and where, stays open.