Unflattering art installations depicting Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and his bride-to-be Lauren Sanchez have recently appeared in Venice, Italy. These striking mannequins surface just ahead of the couple’s highly anticipated wedding celebrations in the historic city.
The provocative installations are the work of an anonymous art collective. Their appearance comes amidst a backdrop of local discontent and protests in Venice. Some residents and observers are angered by a perceived “takeover” of the city by the super-rich, viewing the high-profile nuptials as a symbol of this trend.
The upcoming multi-day event is set to draw significant attention. While the wedding centers on one of the world’s wealthiest individuals, his partner, Lauren Sanchez, has a story rooted in more modest beginnings and a diverse career path that contrasts with the image of inherited or instant wealth often associated with such protests.
Born a third-generation Mexican-American in New Mexico in 1969, Sanchez has spoken candidly about her upbringing, noting she “came from nothing” and recalling sleeping in the back of her grandmother’s car. An early dream of becoming an air stewardess was impacted by restrictive weight requirements at the time. Instead, she pursued journalism, studying at the University of Southern California before leaving to launch a broadcast career in 1994.
Sanchez became a recognizable face in American television, working in various local markets before gaining national and regional prominence. Her roles included stints at Fox Sports Net, Extra, and anchoring Good Day LA and the Fox 11 News at Ten. She earned an Emmy nomination for her show Going Deep and won an Emmy Award in 1999 as an anchor for KCOP-TV. She was also the original host of the popular competition So You Think You Can Dance.
Around age 40, Sanchez made a significant pivot, inspired by her pilot father. She became a licensed helicopter pilot and founded Black Ops Aviation in 2016, making history as the first woman to own an aerial film production company. The company has since worked with major clients like Netflix and Amazon and consulted on films such as Dunkirk. Her passion for flight also led her to participate in an all-female Blue Origin space mission in 2024, an experience she said made her feel protective of Earth. Beyond aviation, she also released a children’s book in 2024, drawing on her childhood struggles with dyslexia.
Sanchez has three children from previous relationships, including a son with former NFL star Tony Gonzalez and two children from her marriage to Hollywood agent Patrick Whitesell.
Her relationship with Jeff Bezos is believed to have begun around early 2019. Reports suggest their paths may have crossed through her aviation company’s work for Bezos’s aerospace venture, Blue Origin. Both Sanchez and Bezos announced their respective divorces shortly before confirming their relationship publicly, though they were reportedly separated beforehand. The couple announced their engagement in the summer of 2023 during a celebration aboard Bezos’s yacht in Italy.
Now, as their wedding festivities approach in Venice, the appearance of the unflattering mannequins serves as a pointed artistic statement, highlighting the tensions surrounding extreme wealth and its visibility in iconic public spaces. The art collective’s work underscores the societal debate about the impact of the super-rich on local communities and historical cities, a debate that is finding a visual voice on the streets of Venice ahead of the high-profile Bezos-Sanchez event.
