The Biennale of Sydney has cut ties with its founding sponsor Transfield, and the company's CEO, Luca Belgiorno-Netis, has announced his resignation as the art event's chairman.
The Biennale board's announcement on Friday followed weeks of pressure from some artists and refugee advocates over the sponsor's links to offshore detention centres.
About 10 artists pulled out of the Biennale, which is due to begin at venues across Sydney on March 21.
The Biennale board had been urged to abandon Transfield Holdings as a sponsor.
The protests were in objection to the company's stake in Transfield Services, which recently was granted a federal-government contract to operate a detention centre on Manus Island.
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The Biennale board's statement said it had "listened to the artists who are the heart of the Biennale and have decided to end out partnership with Transfield immediately".
Transfield has been a sponsor of the Biennale since the early 1970s, when Mr Belgiorno-Nettis's father, Franco Belgiorno-Nettis, helped the event get off the ground.
The financial implications of Transfield's departure as a sponsor remain unclear.
Last month the board said the Belgiorno-Nettis family was vital to the event: "The only certainty is that without our founding partner, the Biennale will no longer exist."
But the board's statement on Friday said: "We have listened to the artists who are the heart of the Biennale and have decided to end our partnership with Transfield effective immediately."
Fairfax Media reports Luca Belgiorno-Nettis's letter said he was resigning to offer "some blue sky" for the Biennale.
"The situation has now reached a crescendo," he said, adding that there was "little room for sensible dialogue, let alone deliberation".
Deputy chairman Andrew Cameron will lead the Biennale until a new chairman is appointed after the end of the event in June.
