MOSCOW (AP) Russian tycoon Roman Abramovich and his wife, art collector Dasha Zhukova, have announced they are splitting up.
The couple said in a joint statement Monday they had ''made the difficult decision to separate'' after 10 years together.
The 50-year-old Abramovich and 36-year-old Zhukova have two children and founded the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Russia's most prominent modern art museum. The Moscow museum hosts popular exhibits and become one of the most-visited art venues in the Russian capital.
The couple said in the statement that they remain ''close friends, parents, and partners'' and would continue to work together on Garage and the New Holland Island cultural hub in St. Petersburg.
The Russian edition of Forbes magazine this year estimated Abramovich to be worth $9.1 billion. He also owns English soccer club Chelsea, which won the Premier League last season.
Abramovich was married twice before and has five children with his second wife. He is notoriously media shy, and it wasn't even known for many years that he and Zhukova were married.
