VENICE, ITALY.- Franco Bernabe, director of the Venice Biennale, stated that he did not want Robert Hughes to head its visual arts segment despite a strong recommendation from Vittorio Sgarbi, Under-Secretary of the Ministry of Culture. Bernabe stated, ’Because of a series of complex problems with Hughes, the Biennale would not even have got underway. He’s a specialist in gratuitous polemics. He insulted the Italian Government. He said Australia should be allowed to sink into the sea.’ Recently Bernabe appointed Italian critic Franceso Bonami, who teaches in the US, to head the visual arts in Venice.