The Moscow Mash
The Jet Set Descends on the Russian Capital for a Little Art Appreciation
Dasha Zhukova celebrated the Tuesday night opening of her Center for Contemporary Culture Moscow with a lavish sit-down dinner. Some guests, like Barbara Bush, swore they came for the art (namely Ilya and Emilia Kabakov's new exhibit An Alternative History of Art). Others admitted they couldn't resist the siren call of free Champagne and caviar. But a large slice of the crowd was there to size up Dasha herself. The American-bred beauty has been portrayed in recent months as a rich dilettante buying her way into the upper echelons of this notoriously snooty industry. But Tuesday night proved she was anything but. "We must acknowledge the courage it took to take on this space," said Nicholas Serota, the director of London's Tate Museum, in a toast. "Dasha is a smart woman." Indeed, converting a former bus shelter into a mammoth exhibition hall is no small feat. And it isn't as easy as it looks to convince a gaggle of VIPs to fly halfway across the world for an opening. "I am here only for Dasha," said Natalia Vodianova, sitting between Stavros Niarchos and Vito Schnabel, "whom I love."
