Creative Australia has yet to pay out sacked Venice artist

But two sources close to the artistic team said the artist and the curator had yet to “receive a cent”.

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“They wrote to Creative Australia to request if payment would be made within the 30-day period, and to date Creative Australia has not responded on that point,” said one source familiar with the legalities.

“The creative team has asked for a meeting with the board of Creative Australia and, consequently, their lawyers to resolve the matter amicably, and have been told Creative Australia does not want to meet.

“Their lawyers sent a legalistic and brutal letter asking for receipts on an item-by-item basis to justify any payment that might be forthcoming.

“With the current leadership in Creative Australia, this looks to be heading for the courts.”

Also on the board’s agenda was a probe Creative Australia called into the independent selection process for Venice. Terms of reference have yet to be released and the review’s leader announced.

Curators and artists have called for an independent review with input from the visual arts sector.

Juliana Engberg, curator of the Australian Pavilion and ancillary sites for Venice in 2007 and 2019, said she feared an inconclusive outcome and the “great loss of faith between Creative Australia and the visual arts and broader arts community”.

“I fear an outcome that will prepare the way for a new government to dismantle the highly valued independence that underpins the ethos of Creative Australia,” she said.

“I fear that any artist, writer, musician, dancer, filmmaker, art worker will be penalised for showing courage, opinion, and independence of thought in an environment that now flinches at the normal activities of civic engagement that underpins democracy and freedom of expression.”

Engberg said the position of the agency’s chief executive and chair were untenable.

“They have lost the faith of their constituency. Their appearance at the Senate estimates did nothing to assuage the feeling that the public has not been given a full and transparent account of the Venice Biennale selection process, the subsequent rescinding of a decision, which sounds very much like a ‘captain’s call’.”

Creative Australia did not respond to questions about financial settlement.