The Tate is among British galleries that are wooing Russia’s super-rich at the Venice Biennale, the world’s most important art fair, which has drawn unprecedented interest from oligarchs this year.

Demand for flights to the Italian city has been so intense that Russian billionaires and millionaires have been flying in economy class just to be sure of getting there. “That’s unheard of,” one Russian art expert said. “There are not dozens, but hundreds of them. We are so surprised.” He added that some were using private jets or private yachts to travel to Venice.

The Tate confirmed yesterday that it was among the international museums that are courting the tycoons for their patronage.

Russia has 53 billionaires, with a combined wealth of £140 billion. Many made their fortune when the former communist nation sold off state assets, including oil, gas and metal companies.

Having bought the grandest houses and yachts, they are now buying art in bulk. It was a Russian who paid £52 million for the Picasso painting Dora Maar au Chat at Sotheby’s in New York last year, while the auction house estimates that 43 per cent of the Russians who bought works last year were new collectors.

Among the Russians in Venice is Janna Bullock, the property tycoon who started collecting contemporary art five years ago, having taken a one-month appreciation course at Sotheby’s in London.

Within hours of Tracey Emin’s explicit images being unveiled at the British pavilion for prices up to £325,000, Ms Bullock had snapped up three major works, including a neon outline of the artist’s nude body. She told The Times: “Emin is one of my favourites. I always look for an artist who I can relate to. She’s a phenomenal artist.”

Ms Bullock displays some of her art in buildings that she develops – offices, shopping centres and gated communities primarily in Russia and the US. She is now developing a site in Eton Square, London.

Ms Bullock said that she felt uncomfortable with the “negative” image of her countrymen flaunting their wealth. “This is more than a money issue. It is bad for museums if they are only looking for the Russians’ money as opposed to their taste and vision,” she said.

She also doubts whether the Russian interest in contemporary art will last. “Most of the Russians are amateurs [in understanding art] and just follow the trend,” she said.

But Fedor Pavlov-Andreevich, the head of Marka: FF, a foundation in Moscow that raises funds for arts projects, disagreed. “Contemporary art is not just a weird trend. It’s fun for them,” he said. He believes that Russian tycoons want to become the 21st-century equivalent of the 19th-century art patrons. “We’ ve had nearly 100 years without such patronage. The Russians now want their names known through art. They want their children to become collectors and have respect from that.”

Leonid Mikhelson, who has a fortune of £2.2 billion as the head of Russia’s second-largest natural gas producer, Novatek, was in Venice to sponsor a Russian exhibition.

Ksenia Sobchak, Russia’s It girl, was also in Venice this week. According to some reports she was the one who introduced Roman Abramovich, the billionaire owner of Chelsea Football Club, to Daria Zhukova, the 24-year-old model who is now his girlfriend.Ms Sobchak is single, a millionairess and has no shortage of oligarchs among her admirers. As one Russian put it: “Wherever she is, they all go. If she has come to Venice, that’s significant.”

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