On April 14, Paris resident Ari Hodara, 58, won the 1941 painting «Tête de Femme» («Head of a Woman») by Pablo Picasso, valued at approximately €1 million, after purchasing a €100 ticket in the «1 Picasso for 100 euros» charity raffle, the BBC reported.
The draw for the event’s third edition took place in the main auction room of Christie’s in Paris. Hodara was informed of his victory via video call. At first, he was unsure whether the news was legitimate. He said he had bought a ticket after learning about the competition by chance.
This year’s edition of «1 Picasso for 100 euros» raised around €12 million, with €1 million allocated to the painting’s owner, Opera Gallery, while the remaining funds will support Fondation Recherche Alzheimer.
The first edition of the charity raffle was held in 2013 to support the ancient city of Tyre, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in southern Lebanon. The second installment took place in 2020 to support projects by CARE International aimed at rehabilitating more than 100 wells and sanitation facilities in schools and villages in Cameroon, Madagascar and Morocco.
Previously, Kursiv LifeStyle reported that a man purchased a complex of abandoned buildings once used as a psychiatric hospital and turned it into an art space in Belarus.
