Lauren Sanchez dress ‘goes missing' during Bezos wedding

Telegraph

9 hours ago

A vintage Dolce & Gabbana dress worn by Lauren Sanchez during her wedding celebrations in Venice has gone missing.
Jeff Bezos's new wife had 27 outfit changes over the three-day extravaganza, but one of the most prized dresses is now nowhere to be found.
The gown apparently disappeared when the Amazon founder and his fiancée were exchanging vows and rings on the tiny island of San Giorgia in the Venetian lagoon last Friday.
Insiders with knowledge of the event confirmed that a dress was missing, and that they did not know what had happened to it. No report has been filed to the police.
For such a lavish event, organised by the world's third richest person, there were a lot of outfits and items that could go missing from time to time, a source said.
There is confidence that the garment will 'eventually turn up'.
An Italian newspaper claimed on Thursday that the dress had been stolen by a gatecrasher, an 'elegantly-dressed' woman who managed to sneak into the nuptials on Friday despite not having an invitation.
Corriere della Sera also claimed that a second dress, worn either by Ms Sanchez or Ivanka Trump, had somehow burst into flames during the wedding celebrations on the island.
Both those claims were denied by insiders.
The missing dress is one of 27 outfit changes that Ms Sanchez reportedly went through during the lavish three-day event last week.
In addition to witnessing the exchange of vows on San Giorgio island, opposite St Mark's Square, guests were invited to a dinner inside a cloister attached to a historic church called La Madonna dell'Orto the night before and a pyjama party the next evening in the Arsenal, Venice's centuries-old shipbuilding yards.
'Locked down'
Mr Bezos, who is worth $234 billion, is reportedly now on honeymoon with his new wife in Taormina in Sicily – the picturesque town where White Lotus was filmed.
They are believed to be staying at the San Domenico Palace, one of the locations for the second season of the hit HBO show, which satirises the lives of the ultra-wealthy.
Protesters in Venice decried the extravagance of the event, which reportedly cost $50 million, and accused Mr Bezos of using Venice as a playground for the super-rich.
They had warned that the lagoon city would be 'militarised' and 'locked down' by the authorities because of the high profile of the wedding couple and their guests.
However, in the end, little inconvenience was caused to most residents and tourists, who would have barely known about the wedding if they had not been watching the news.
Venice's mayor, Luigi Brugnaro, said he was pleased and relieved that the nuptials went well.
'We're happy that Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez chose our city to celebrate such a special moment in their lives. It confirms once again the universal appeal of Venice. This is our strength – to know how to be global without losing our authenticity. More than 600 couples – some famous, many less so – choose Venice each year as a place in which to marry.'
'The city was not locked down'
Darco Pellos, the chief of police for Venice, said the authorities had struck a balance between allowing protests to take place while ensuring that the wedding celebrations went ahead without disruption.
'Those who wanted to protest were able to do so, the guests were able to attend the events without being concerned, and the city was not locked down,' he said. 'Locals and tourists alike were able to experience the city as normal.'
The arrival of Mr Bezos's 200 guests was no big deal given that Venice is accustomed to absorbing more than 100,000 visitors a day, he said. He said he was relieved that there had been no untoward incidents – 'not even the throwing of a tomato.'