Dasha defies the art market slump

The recession in the contemporary art market is being heroically ignored by Dasha Zhukova (pictured with artists Ilya and Emilia Kabakov at the opening of her Moscow arts centre), the 27-year-old girlfriend of the Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich. This week she not only launched a massive project in Moscow, showing the work of artists on a giant plasma screen mounted on the roof of a building opposite the Kremlin, but she has also found time to help her 'half-brother' Mickey Watford curate his first art exhibition at the Music Room in Mayfair.

Mickey, a 17-year-old A-Level student at Harrow, is the son of Svetlana Watford, the partner of Zhukova's oligarch father Alexander. And Dasha, who is said to have been instrumental in Roman splashing out $120m on two paintings by Lucian Freud and Francis Bacon earlier this year, certainly used her ample address book to good effect. Guests at the private view included Jay Jopling, the owner of the White Cube gallery, and Tory treasurer Michael Spencer.

"Dasha has been a huge inspiration to me getting involved in art," Mickey told the Daily Mail. "She's a great role model, although I don't go around saying to my friends: ‘Look, she's in the paper!’"

The Moscow screening, which lasts until December 22, is the first “offsite” project conducted by Dasha’s recently opened Garage Centre for Contemporary Art. "I think there are many busy people in Moscow and many of them may love contemporary art, but they may not have the time to go out to a museum,” says Dasha. “Everyone is always in a rush, so I thought this would be a great way for people on their way to work to get a glimpse of these beautiful works."