Billionaire Builds a Big Museum for Russia's Tiny Art Market
- Leonid Mikhelson invests $130 million in new museum in Moscow
- His company produces about 9% of nation’s natural gas supply
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Energy tycoon Leonid Mikhelson has emerged as one of Russia’s biggest buyers of contemporary art, something that would have seemed unfathomable less than a decade ago.
His collection, worth an estimated $200 million, includes works by Gerhard Richter, Christopher Wool and Rudolf Stingel. Mikhelson, 62, is also building a $130 million center of contemporary art in Moscow, in a market with a capacity roughly equal to one evening auction in New York, according to Vladimir Ovcharenko, founder of the Vladey auction house.