Venice protest planned for U.S. ambassador's superyacht

The Art Not Genocide Alliance has called for a protest in Venice on Friday, timed to the arrival of U.S. Ambassador to Italy Tilman Fertitta and the superyacht carrying him on a tour of the country.

Supporters will gather at 6 p.m. at Campo San Zaccaria, a square near the waterfront where Fertitta's vessel is expected to dock, the group said in a July 7 Instagram post. ANGA framed the action as extending its Palestine campaign "from the Biennale to the streets."

Fertitta, a billionaire and ally of President Donald Trump, is touring the Italian coast aboard the Boardwalk, a 384-foot yacht reported to cost about $450 million, to mark the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Declaration of Independence.

The trip, which the embassy has branded "coastal diplomacy," began June 13 near Rome and reaches Venice during the Festa del Redentore, one of the city's largest annual celebrations.

“I look forward to meeting Italians across the country to celebrate connections that have linked our nations for generations. It is a great way to celebrate 250 years of our independence while Italy also celebrates 80 years of the Republic,” Fertitta said in a statement. “This is the story of everything that connects us beyond the headlines. That includes the story of my own Italian roots in Cefalù.”

ANGA tied the protest to its opposition to U.S. support for Israel's war in Gaza, which the group describes as genocide and which a United Nations commission of inquiry concluded in 2025 amounted to genocide. The group wrote that the United States "continues to arm, finance and politically shield Israel's genocide in Palestine."

"We refuse the cultural normalisation of genocide. We refuse the militarisation of our cities. We refuse the capture of Venice by oligarchs, war profiteers and the representatives of imperial power," the group wrote.

The alliance led strikes during the 61st Venice Biennale in May, when it says more than 20 national pavilions in the Giardini closed partially or fully over Israel's inclusion in the exhibition.

That campaign followed an open letter, signed by nearly 200 artists, curators and arts workers, demanding Israel's exclusion.

ANGA has called the Israeli pavilion the "Genocide Pavilion" and this year published a "Guide to Complicity" naming the United States as a central enabler of the war.

"From the boycott of the Genocide Pavilion to the protest against Fertitta, our message remains the same: no business as usual with genocide," the group wrote. The post closed with the slogans "FREE PALESTINE" and "VENEZIA NON SI USA," a pun playing the city's name against "USA."

Fertitta is not the first billionaire to draw protest in Venice. Other local groups, including Laboratorio Occupato Morion, which demonstrated against Jeff Bezos's 2025 wedding in the city, have also called for action against the visit.

Fertitta, 69, is the largest shareholder of Wynn Resorts. Neither he nor the U.S. Embassy in Rome had publicly addressed the planned protests as of press time.

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