Russian billionaire’s V-A-C Foundation opens space in Venice

Another influential foreign patron is building an art empire in Venice, joining the ranks of the French luxury goods tycoon Franois Pinault and the Italian fashion giant Miuccia Prada. The Russian gas billionaire Leonid Mikhelson is launching a gallery in the 19th-century Palazzo delle Zattere with a show of Soviet and contemporary art during the opening week of the Venice Biennale (Space Force Construction, 13 May-25 August). Mikhelsons Moscow-based V-A-C Foundation will run the new space, whi