A celebrity wedding party for Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and journalist Lauren Sanchez in Venice this week has been moved to an isolated, less accessible part of the lagoon city on security concerns and to prevent the risk of protests, sources said.
The billionaire tech-tycoon and his fiancee had earmarked a location in Cannaregio to celebrate after their marriage, a popular and central nightlife area, but fears of demonstrations led to a change of plan, the sources added.
For weeks some local residents and pressure groups have been complaining that the event will turn the scenic city of gondolas and palazzi into a private amusement park for the rich, and threatened peaceful blockades.
After the wedding ceremony, whose location and exact date remain secret, although it is expected to be before Saturday, some 200-250 VIP guests from show business, politics and finance will now head to a hall of the Arsenale, a vast 14th-century complex in the eastern Castello district.
Surrounded by water and impossible to reach by land when connecting bridges are raised, the hall is considered a safer venue than Cannaregio’s Scuola Grande della Misericordia, a medieval former religious school.
Originally a giant shipyard serving the Venetian Republic’s maritime empire, the Arsenale has been restored and converted into an exhibition space for the Venice Biennale art fair.
Bezos, 61, executive chair of e-commerce giant Amazon and ranks 4 on Forbes’ billionaires list, got engaged to Sanchez, in 2023 after the collapse of his marriage to Mackenzie Scott.
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