Yesterday evening Italian authorities seized one of the world's largest superyachts: the €530m Sy A (Sailing Yacht A), owned by Russian businessman Andrey Melnichenko, moored in the port of Trieste. The yacht was seized as part of the European Union sanctions imposed on Russia after the country invaded Ukraine. Melnichenko is the billionaire owner of the EuroChem Group, a major fertiliser producer, and the coal company SUEK. The two companies recently stated that Melnichenko, who was a member of the board in both companies, resigned this week.
According to an official document issued on 9th March by the European Council (Download CELEX_32022R0396_EN_TXT), Melnichenko "belongs to the most influential circle of Russian businesspeople with close connections to the Russian Government. He is therefore involved in economic sectors providing a substantial source of revenue to the Government of the Russian Federation, which is responsible for the annexation of Crimea and the destabilisation of Ukraine."
In the last few days Italian authorities also seized €143m worth of luxury yachts and villas owned by Russian billionaires in different locations around the country, from Lake Como and Sardinia to the Ligurian coast.
To avoid seizure, some billionaires are moving around their superyachts: this week the UK announced sanctions against 7 oligarchs including Roman Abramovich, owner of Chelsea FC. Abramovich's assets were frozen and the UK also imposed on him a prohibition on transactions with UK individuals and businesses, a travel ban and transport sanctions. Abramovich, who must be now worried about his yachst, moved them around: his superyacht Solaris arrived in Montenegro, while his other yacht, the more luxurious Eclipse, is in the Canary Islands.
The seizure of the oligarchs' yachts seem to be the final chapter of the 2011 diatribe that occurred at the Venice Biennale when Roman Abramovich moored his enormous yacht Luna at the Riva dei Sette Martiri, close to the Biennale Gardens. At the next Biennale in 2013, British artist Jeremy Deller expressed his feelings about the episode in his mural of a gigantic William Morris throwing Abramovich's view-blocking nightmare into the lagoon (in the mural Morris was surrounded by privatisation vouchers and coupons that contributed to the rise of present-day oligarchs).
In 19th century France there was a controversy whether art - and mainly literature - followed life or life followed art. Well, we seem to have found the answer from the oligarchs' yacht saga - life certainly follows art.
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