What’s an International Art World Schmooze-Fest Without Russian Billionaires and Their Mega-Yachts? We May Soon Find Out

On December 1, as hundreds of thousands of Russian troops assembled at the border of Ukraine, Russian president Vladimir Putin took a trip to a new contemporary art museum in Moscow. Hardly a fan of the avant-garde, Putin stopped by the not-yet-open outpost of the V-A-C Foundation in a Renzo Piano–designed space at the invitation of the foundation’s founder, Leonid Mikhelson, the dapper mustachioed chairman of both the Novatek gas company and Sibur petrochemicals, and a close associate of Putin’s. Novatek is the country’s largest gas provider, and last October, Mikhelson had an estimated net worth of $35 billion, making… Read Full Article