Roman Abramovich, Renaissance Man

Published: October 5, 2009

Courtesy Tanzania Tourist Board

Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich scales Mt. Kilimanjaro.

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DAR-ES-SALAAM, Tanzania—Billionaire Roman Abramovich is a man of many talents. In recent years he has established himself as a formidable art collector, a prominent yachtsman, and an active football club owner. And now he can add the title of experienced mountaineer.

The Tanzania Tourist Board has announced that Abramovich visited the nation late last month with five companions and proceeded to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro, Africa’s tallest mountain. The board also reports that the Russian businessman and his coterie of climbers arrived for the journey on a 200-seat Boeing 747.

Abramovich has astonished some in the art world with his deep pockets. He is rumored to have purchased a Francis Bacon triptych for an astonishing $86.3 million at Sotheby’s in New York in 2008 and is known for financially supporting girlfriend Dasha Zhukova's Garage contemporary art center, among other Moscow art endeavors.

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