Leaked Documents Reveal Roman Abramovich’s Art Riches

Leaked documents from Cyprus-based offshore financial services provider MeritServus detail 367 artworks collected by Roman Abramovich and Dasha Zhukova. Combined, they are worth U.S. $963 million.

They include paintings by modernist giants such as Claude Monet, Piet Mondrian, Henri Matisse, and Pablo Picasso.

Among the contemporary artists the pair collected are Francis Bacon, Paula Rego, and David Hockney.

One of the standout works is Lucian Freud‘s magnificent portrait of Sue Tilley, Benefits Supervisor Sleeping (1995), pictured top, which Abramovich purchased at auction for U.S. $33.6 million in 2008.

‘You could fill a museum with it; this is a stupendous collection,’ Andrew Renton, the professor of curating at Goldsmiths, University of London, told The Guardian.

‘It’s not the vulgar collection of a nouveau riche; it shows very good taste. If you have enough money, you can buy a piece of history,’ he said.

Abramovich and Zhukova married in June 2008. That same year, they launched the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art in a former bus depot in Moscow. They separated in 2016 and finalised their divorce in 2019.

Zhukova remains extremely active in the art world. She sits on the boards of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Shed in New York, and alongside Sofia Coppola at Gagosian.

In the lead up to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the trust that owned their works increased Zhukova’s interest to 51% and lowered Abramovich’s to 49% from what had been a 50-50 split. Minority-held assets cannot be frozen under the sanctions the U.K., E.U. and U.S. imposed on Russian oligarchs in response to the invasion.

Zhukova, who grew up in Moscow, Houston, and Los Angeles, now lives in New York. She is a U.S. citizen, and not subject to sanctions. She also spoke out against the Russian invasion from the outset, saying ‘as someone born in Russia, I unequivocally condemn these acts of war, and I stand in solidarity with the Ukrainian people as well as with the millions of Russians who feel the same way.’

Nevertheless, the sanctions seem to have prevented the owners from lending the works out to public museums.

‘These sanctions were imposed for good reason,’ art market expert Georgina Adam told The Guardian. ‘Now, the consequence of Mr. Abramovich’s investment in art is that the public are deprived of the opportunity to enjoy some of the greatest modern and contemporary works.’ —[O]

Main image: Lucian Freud, Benefits Supervisor Sleeping (1995). Oil on canvas. 151.3 x 219 cm. Courtesy Christie's.