BREAKUPS

Dasha Zhukova Has Split with the Russian Oligarch Roman Abramovich—and Already Found a Much Better Billionaire’s Yacht

The Russian “It” girl, art collector, and editor will continue to work with her ex on their massive Moscow art museum.


Preview of the Spring Exhibition Season at Garage Museum of Contemporary Art
Team Boyko/Getty Images

It’s been a dreary day for relationships around the world—and especially for billionaires. While filming in Australia, the actress Amber Heard ended her year-long dalliance with the notably loaded tech mogul Elon Musk, who’d in fact been pursuing her since 2013. (Even though, you know, she was at the time dating and later married to Johnny Depp.)

The Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich surely now knows Musk’s pain, though his relationship, which also ended today, lasted quite a bit longer: For the past 10 years, he’s been married to the art and fashion fixture Dasha Zhukova, a decade they’ve spent as Russia’s artiest, most jet set-y oligarchs.

“After 10 years together, the two of us have made the difficult decision to separate, but we remain close friends, parents and partners in the projects we developed together,” the pair told Page Six. “We are committed to jointly raising our two children. We will also continue to work together as co-founders of the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art in Moscow and the New Holland Island cultural center in Saint Petersburg.”

That’s right: Like any true billionaire couple, marriage isn’t the only institution the pair has been wrapped up in: In 2008, Abramovich and Zhukova converted (and rigorously renovated) a former bus garage into Moscow’s first contemporary art museum since the fall of communism, whose opening-night private performance by Amy Winehouse was soon followed by exhibitions of blue-chip names like Cindy Sherman and, of course, the world’s highest paid artist: Jeff Koons. (That opening turned out to be nothing compared to the museum’s $27 million, 65,000 square feet Rem Koolhaas upgrade in 2015, which marked Yayoi Kusama’s debut in Russia, and saw Woody Allen, George Lucas, Arianna Huffington, Gavin Brown, Karlie Kloss, Wendi Murdoch, Larry Gagosian and around 250 more make the trek to the country, too.)

Photos: Garage Rocks

Rem Koolhaas and Dasha Zhukova. Photo by BFAnyc.com.

Karlie Kloss and Natalia Vodianova. Photo by BFAnyc.com.

Roman Abramovich. Photo by BFAnyc.com.

Kate Fowle. Photo by BFAnyc.com.

Miuccia Prada, Dasha Zhukova and Arianna Huffington. Photo by BFAnyc.com.

Bechet Dumaine, Woody Allen, and Soon-Yi Pravin. Photo by BFAnyc.com.

Wendi Murdoch and Stella McCartney. Photo by BFAnyc.com.

Rirkrit Tiravanija. Photo by BFAnyc.com.

Hope Atherton, Gavin Brown, and Olympia Scarry. Photo by BFAnyc.com.

Sofia Sanchez Barrenechea and Eve Therond. Photo by BFAnyc.com.

Larry Gagosian, Jeff Koons, and Len Blavatnik. Photo by BFAnyc.com.

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In 2011, Zhukova, who was once editor-in-chief of Pop and a founding partner of Artsy, and is currently on the board of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, also started the biannual art and fashion magazine Garage, which has also featured Koons and artists like Damien Hirst and Marina Abramovic. At the time, the New York Times called it “one of the most intriguing magazines to come along in years”—its debut cover featured Hirst’s image of a woman’s vagina complete with a peel-off decal—though last year Zhukova sold a majority stake in the mag to Vice Media and switched over from editor-in-chief to editorial director.

There’s no word yet on how Abramovich—who also happens to own the Chelsea football team, and is reportedly close enough with Vladimir Putin that Kremlin officials call him Mr. A—is doing, particularly as he famously refuses to give interviews. However, his monetary contributions to the government-backed transformation of Saint Petersburg’s New Holland do seem to suggest he’s staying on Putin’s good side.

Zhukova, on the other hand, seems to be doing just fine: She’s spent the past week getting sushi with her friend and Kloss‘s long-time investor boyfriend—aka the good Kushner brother, who attended the Women’s March on Washington and definitely didn’t vote for Trump. Plus, she’s been hanging with her billionaire pal David Geffen, who always takes care to tag her real (though unfortunately private) Instagram handle: @mamasinthebuilding.

This past week, though, “Mama” was in fact on Geffen’s infamous 453-foot yacht, Rising Sun—despite the fact that her husband owns the world’s second largest yacht, which reportedly is home to two swimming pools, two helipads, mini-submarine, armor-plated master suite, and very own missile defense system. Abramovich was nonetheless nowhere to be found on Rising Sun, though Bob Iger, the chairman of Disney, was there—oh, and easily one of the world’s best billionaires: Oprah Winfrey.

Related: Lifestyles of the Rich and Shameless

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