Move aside Venice, there is another biennale courting controversy and risking losing financial support because of it.

Sydney's Biennale made headlines before it even started when artistic director Hoor Al Qasimi dodged the press preview saying she did not want to take attention away from the art and things went downhill from there.

Its opening night was a disaster - a complaint was made to the police and local government leaders were forced to defend its public funding after US performer DJ Haram used her set to claim a "Zio-Australian-Epstein empire" was silencing dissent.

The reaction was swift - financial firm PricewaterhouseCoopers withdrew its support from the event and the New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies filed a police complaint.

A festival spokesperson said they would cooperate with any police investigation and announced an internal review.

This year's Venice Biennale faces its own controversy after admitting Russia for the first time since the invasion of Ukraine with the EU threatening to withdraw $2.3 million in funding.

The amount the Spanish government gives every citizen when they turn 18 to spend on the arts. Recent figures published by El Pais show 68% of eligible people sign up to the scheme.

Madrid's Prado Museum has cut the size of its tour groups two months after its director said it did not need any more visitors.

A museum spokesperson said it was reducing the maximum number of members per visitor group from 30 to 20 and moving them towards less busy times.

They said the measures would "directly enhance the visitor experience by improving the distribution of visitors throughout the museum and its opening hours".

On average, 1,609 people visit the museum in groups every day. Speaking in January, director Miguel Falomir said the museum, home to works by Titian, Goya and Bosch, did not need “a single visitor more” after it welcomed a record 3.5 million people last year.

He said: "We feel comfortable with 3.5 million. A museum’s success can collapse it, like the Louvre, with some rooms becoming oversaturated. The important thing is not to collapse."

An IOU signed by a cash-strapped Claude Monet is expected to sell for around $133,000 at auction.

The letter was written in 1875 after he received a loan from the brother of his contemporary Edouard Manet to help pay his rent.

The Daily Telegraph reported Monet committed to selling 35 paintings at auction to pay back the loan including his La Japonaise which he was working on at the time and which is now in the collection of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.

The letter is being sold next Tuesday at International Autograph Auctions Europe in Malaga, Spain.

1 - Artist and curator Jitish Kallat has been named the new president of India's Kochi-Muziris Biennale. He takes over from its co-founder Bose Krishnamachari who stepped down earlier this year.

2 - More bad behavior in museums. This time it is the Ancient Ozarks Natural History Museum outside Branson, Missouri, where two men are accused of destroying a fossilized mammoth tusk worth around $200,000. They are accused of pulling it from a wall causing it to shatter into pieces. If convicted they face up to four years in jail.

3 - London's Timothy Taylor gallery is closing its New York space "to ensure the long-term stability of the gallery and the community around it". They told ARTnews they would keep an office and viewing room in the city but needed to "consolidate its operations" given the "realities of the present climate". It will close after the current James Prapaithong show ends on April 18.

4 - The US House of Representatives has voted to extend the law making it easier for the heirs of Nazi victims to recover looted art. The bill extends the Holocaust Expropriated Art Recovery Act of 2016 which is set to expire this year. It will now go before President Trump for his consideration.