NEW YORK, NY.- Documenta, the German contemporary art exhibition considered one of the most prestigious in the world, fell into crisis this week after the entire team tasked with finding its next artistic director resigned after a series of disputes with administrators related to the Israel-Hamas war.

The breakup of the committee meant the start date for Documenta’s next edition may have to be pushed back later than 2027, when it was scheduled to open in Kassel, Germany, a Documenta spokesperson said in an email.

The last four members of the search committee stepped down Thursday, just days after its other two members had resigned, all for reasons related to the ongoing war in Israel and the Gaza Strip and the debate surrounding it in Germany.

The four who resigned Thursday night — Simon Njami, Gong Yan, Kathrin Rhomberg and María Inés Rodríguez, who are museum directors and curators — said in an open letter that they were stepping aside in part because the political climate in Germany around the war in Israel and Gaza meant it now appeared impossible to stage an art show that allows “diverse perspectives, perceptions and discourses.”

In a news release, Documenta, which is rivaled only by the Venice Biennale for art world prestige and public attendance, acknowledged the search committee’s work had become fraught “in view of the terrorist attacks by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, and the growing antisemitism in Germany as well as the polarized debates surrounding it.” Documenta’s board and staff would now try to work out how the selection process could proceed, the news release said.

The crisis started Nov. 10, when Bracha Lichtenberg Ettinger, who is Israeli, resigned after administrators rejected her request for a pause in the committee’s search, in recognition of the recent deaths in Israel and Gaza.

On Sunday, Ranjit Hoskote, an Indian art critic and poet, resigned from the Documenta committee after the administrators repeatedly urged him to distance himself from a petition he had signed in 2019, about an event in India on the links between Hindu nationalism and Zionism, that described Israel as an apartheid state.

The upheaval at Documenta is just one example of how Europe’s art world is being torn by debates about Israel and Gaza, as some institutions have moved to postpone the shows of artists who have criticized Israel.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.