the mysterious
Dasha zhukova
She has taken the international art world by storm—now, Anna Preston Gelderd digs deeper into Zhukova's glamorous, albeit veiled, life
W
ho's that girl? Magazine editor, fashion icon, gallerist, socialite, art patron...30year-old Dasha Zhukova has everyone from Moscow to London to New York wanting to know more and more about the elusive beauty. Born in Moscow, the only child of a molecular biologist, Elena Zhu-
Photograph by Billy Farrell kova, and an oil magnate, Alexander Zhukov, Dasha Zhukova moved to California with her mother after the end of her parents’ marriage. She spent 12 years in Los Angeles, then moved back to Russia after graduating from UC Santa Barbara. Clearly at home across international society, Zhukova now lives in London with
her son and her billionaire boyfriend, U.K.'s Chelsea soccer club owner Roman Abramovich. The two met at a friend's dinner party in Moscow soon after he separated from his wife (to whom he handed a cool $300 million divorce settlement) and had just sold his stake in private Russian oil company, Sibneft, to the tune of $13 billion.
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