victor pinchuk

Hirst Collector Pinchuk to Bring Contemporary Art Center to Kiev

Filed under: Art

Ukraine is about to get a new contemporary art center. Victor Pinchuk is shooting to make Kiev a major art destination, so the wealthy art collector is creating a new center that will be larger than the existing PinchukArtCentre, which was the first private contemporary art center in the former Soviet Union and has had more than 830,000 visitors since its doors swung open in 2006.

Pinchuk, a steel billionaire, is an avid collector, with pieces by Jeff Koons, Damien Hirst and Andreas Gursky. His new endeavor, he tells Bloomberg News, "will make Kiev and Ukraine a fantastic place for contemporary art." Pinchuk made the proclamation at a show for 20 Ukrainian artists who were nominated for the first Pinchuk Art Center Prize, which comes with a cash component of $12,200 and a one-month internship with an artist from the international scene. Hirst himself will announce the winner on December 4, 2009.

Pinchuk has a strong relationship with the ~~artist~~ celebrity and owns "probably half" of the skull paintings (by the collector's own estimation) in the current Hirst show at the Wallace Collection in London. He also participated in Hirst's solo auction in September 2008 but wouldn't tell what he bought.

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Ukraine To See Major Hirst Exhibit

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Art

Ukrainian steel billionaire Victor Pinchuk is bringing Damien Hirst to the people of Kiev. The Pinchuk Art Center is a private art museum in Ukraine's capital and it will host "Requiem," a retrospective of over 100 Hirst works borrowed from collectors around the world. Pinchuk is a Hirst collector who was one of the many buying art and filling Hirst's pockets at the solo auction in London last year.

The news of the exhibit by one of the world's most expensive artists comes as Ukraine is suffering major economic hardship, propelled partly by a drop in steel and aluminum exports. Oh well, at least admission to the exhibit, which starts on April 25, is free.

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Tags: art, damien hirst, DamienHirst, meet the billionaires, MeetTheBillionaires, ukraine, victor pinchuk, VictorPinchuk