Russian Billionare Prokhorov Gives $2 Million for Retrospective

MOSCOW—Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov will give $2 million for the financing of Russia's first retrospective of one of its leading postwar artists, Ilya Kabakov, Bloomberg reports. Prokhorov, whose fortune is estimated at $19.5 billion by Forbes, is the primary financer of the exhibition, which will feature more than 150 paintings, drawings, and sculptures by the New York-based Russian artist.

Kabakov, the founder of the Moscow conceptual art movement, became Russia's most expensive postwar artist at a February 2008 Phillips de Pury & Co. auction. His 1982 painting Beetle sold for £2.9 million ($5.84 million) against a high estimate of £1.8 million.

The retrospective will take place September 15 through October 15 at the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts and three other locations, among them a 1920s bus depot renovated by Russian architect Konstantin Melnikov and soon to house London-based fashion promoter Dasha Zhukova's Garage Center of Contemporary Culture.