BREAKINGVIEWS-Bezos Venice carnival typifies billionaire burnout

By Jennifer Saba

NEW YORK, June 27 (Reuters Breakingviews) - What wedding gift do you give the creator of the everything store? Amazon.com AMZN.O founder Jeff Bezos is set to celebrate his union with Lauren Sanchez in Venice this weekend. The three-day bash has sparked protests in a place synonymous with nobles, commerce and elaborate parties. It’s another reminder that even the well-off are fed up with the super-rich.

With a net worth of $230 billion, the world’s fourth wealthiest man can afford to practically take over the floating city to mark his marriage to Sanchez, whose recent publicity stunts include a trip into space on the tycoon’s Blue Origin vessel. Bezos has booked 30 water taxis and five hotels including the Cipriani for the expected 250 guests including Kim Kardashian, Mick Jagger and Ivanka Trump.

Such excess is expensive. The estimated cost is up to $56 million, the president of the Veneto regional government told reporters. Bezos and Sanchez also donated 3 million euros to local Venetian institutions. Yet others have shelled out more. Last year’s nuptials of Reliance Industries scion Anant Ambani to Radhika Merchant came with an estimated $600 million price tag.

Nonetheless, Bezos’ festivities have irked locals and activists. Protestors have spent weeks denouncing the Amazon chair’s treatment of the floating city as his own private playground and widening inequality under the heading “No Space for Bezos”. Climate campaigners Greenpeace and the British group Everyone hates Elon planted a huge banner in the middle of St. Mark’s Square showing a cackling Bezos with the tagline: “If you can rent Venice for your wedding, you can pay more tax.” Security concerns forced the couple to change the location of their reception.

Venetians are no strangers to mercantile ways or glitzy celebrations. The city’s foundational wealth is based on maritime trade. It is renowned for its week-long carnival with intricate and detailed costumes. Nor is it averse to famous interlopers. Superstar George Clooney was welcomed with open arms when he married Amal Alamuddin in the lagoon city in 2014.

Nevertheless, billionaires are generally facing a more hostile reception. Elon Musk’s Tesla faced a corporate boycott after leading a cost-cutting drive for Donald Trump’s administration. Meta Platforms founder Mark Zuckerberg was greeted by climate activists when his super yacht pulled up to the Norwegian island of Svalbard last month. Even the capital of finance is facing a reckoning: New York City this week decisively voted to put democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani on the ballot for the mayoral election in November, rejecting former Governor Andrew Cuomo and his deep-pocketed backers.

Overt displays of opulence can backfire. Dennis Kozlowski’s decadent birthday soiree for his wife on the island of Sardinia in 2001 looked even more foolish when the Tyco CEO was later jailed for fraud. Blackstone boss Steve Schwarzman’s lavish 60th birthday party in 2007 came to exemplify Wall Street excess before the financial crisis. The Bezos backlash in Venice is evidence that the popular mood is once again turning against billionaires.

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CONTEXT NEWS

Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos will celebrate his wedding to Lauren Sanchez during a three-day event in Venice starting June 26. The estimated cost of the wedding is between 40 million and 48 million euros, Luca Zaia, president of the Veneto regional government, told reporters.

Bezos and Sanchez donated 3 million euros to three local Venetian institutions, according to Zaia.