Billionaire Abramovich Buys Historic Kabakov Collection

Billionaire Roman Abramovich and his partner, Dasha Zhukova, bought a major group of works by Ilya Kabakov, the priciest living Russian artist. While the amount paid for the group last year hasn’t been disclosed, the asking price for the works ranged as high as $60 million, according to observers familiar with private art sales.

The group consists of about 40 paintings as well as important early albums and installations. Most of the works were made by Kabakov before he left Moscow in 1987. The artist, who lives in New York, was a founder of Moscow’s conceptualist-art movement.

“The collection is priceless because it has many historic works that you can’t get anywhere else,” said Natalia Kolodzei, executive director of the U.S.-based Kolodzei Art Foundation, which promotes 20th-century Russian art.

Kabakov, 79, has held the title of Russia’s most expensive living artist since 2008, when his 1982 painting “Beetle” sold for 2.9 million pounds ($5.8 million at the time) at Phillips de Pury & Co. in London, now known as Phillips.

      HERE'S A STILL LIFE ABRAMOVICH PAID £50M FOR IN 2011

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