Venice in peril, from inflatable crocodiles

Few readers will be unaware of Jeff Bezos commandeering Venice for his wedding to Lauren Sanchez. The city is no stranger to weddings of the rich and famous – see George and Amal Clooney in 2014. However, the Amazon tycoon has put backs up by reportedly booking out entire hotels to keep the masses at bay. No wonder that there is a protest group calling itself No Space for Bezos, which, only this week, has forced a change of venue for the reception: from the Scuola Grande della Misericordia – one of the six great schools or confraternities of Venice – to the Arsenale.

One of the week’s more imaginative protests was No Space for Bezos’s proposal to fill the canal in front of the Scuola with inflatable crocodiles. A spokesman for the group said, ‘We feel as if we scored a victory. The crocodile initiative would have given a bad impression of the city.’ Officials, however, are suggesting that the decision to move the reception was for reasons of security. Parts of the Arsenale are still owned by the Italian Navy – as Rakewell was reminded when he tried to visit the Chilean pavilion during the 2024 Biennale only to come up against some armed guards and a lot of wire fencing.

While dragons abound in Venice – consider Carpaccio’s depictions of Saint George and the dragon in the Scuola San Giorgio degli Schiavoni – the humble crocodile is harder to find. In the heart of Venice you can find a slain crocodile on a column in St Mark’s Square – and standing on top of the crocodile a triumphant Saint Theodore, spear in hand. Other Venetians captivated by crocodiles seem quite hard to find, though the Met has a rather unrealistic drawing of a crocodile head by Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo. Still, when Rakewell next visits the city, he hopes for fewer superyachts and more inflatable-crocodile-infested waters.

A Stag Lying Down (on a base): The Head of a Crocodile (after 1770), Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Saint George Killing the Dragon (1502–07), Vittore Carpaccio. Scuola di San Giorgio degli Schiavoni, Venice

The statue of Saint Theodore and a tamed dragon in Venice during the pandemic in 2020. Photo: Marco Sabadin/AFP via Getty Images