Moscow_ Russia

							New cultural venues add a dash of the sacred and profane.

The extravagantly renovated Bolshoi Theater has been preening like a prima donna before the
news media’s flashbulbs since it reopened in October. And given the $760 million face-lift to the
236-year-old grand dame you can almost hear the czars applauding from their tombs.

But beyond the spotlight, two compelling museums have also made their debuts. The Russian
Icon Museum is said to hold the largest private collection of Russian and Eastern Christian
religious artwork (some 4,000 pieces). Admission to the museum is free.

You won’t find many virgins or saints at Tochka G, whose name translates as “G Spot.” With
more than 3,000 sex-related items, the bounty includes everything from Soviet-era condoms to
high-tech sex dolls to “Wrestling,” a 2011 painting by the Russian artist Vera Donskaya-Khilko
that depicts a buff Vladimir Putin and Barack Obama challenging each other with their
cartoonishly oversized phalluses. In Russia, size does matter.