Frenchman scoops up 1 million euro Picasso painting in Paris raffle

By Elissa Darwish

PARIS, April 14 (Reuters) – A Frenchman won a Picasso painting worth 1 million euros ($1.18 million) in a non-profit raffle on Tuesday.

The winner, Ari Hodara, a 59-year-old software ​engineer from Paris, was selected at random at Christie’s ‌auction house in Paris from 120,000 tickets sold at 100 euros apiece. The raffle’s proceeds will fund Alzheimer’s disease research.

“I was surprised, that’s it,” Hodara said during a phone call with organisers shortly after the draw. “When you bet ‌on ​this, you don’t expect to win.”

Launched in ⁠2013, the “1 Picasso for 100 ⁠euros” raffle aims to support charities by giving participants a chance to win an original work by the famed Spanish artist. This was the third edition.

This year’s prize was “Tête de Femme” (Head ​of a Woman), a gouache-on-paper portrait painted by Pablo Picasso in 1941.

Rendered in his signature style, the grey, white and ⁠cream composition reflects the sombre mood of ⁠the era while also suggesting hope, Picasso’s grandson ​Olivier Widmaier Picasso has said.

For the first time in the raffle’s history, ​all 120,000 tickets were sold, organisers said. One million ‌euros from the sales will go to international gallery chain Opera Gallery, the painting’s current owner, they said.

The remaining proceeds of approximately 11 million euros will be donated to France’s Fondation Recherche Alzheimer, ⁠a leading funder of research into the neurodegenerative disease.

The raffle’s first edition in 2013 raised 4.8 million euros and awarded Picasso’s “The Man in the ⁠Opera Hat” to ‌then 25-year-old American Jeffrey Gonano. Proceeds went to ⁠the preservation of the Lebanese city of Tyre, ​a ‌UNESCO World Heritage Site.

For the second edition, in ​2020, an Italian ⁠woman won Picasso’s still life “Nature Morte” with a ticket she had received as a Christmas gift from her son. Proceeds were donated to sanitation projects in schools and villages in Cameroon, Madagascar and Morocco.

($1 = 0.8474 euros)

(Reporting by Elissa Darwish; Editing by Ingrid Melander, Inti Landauro ​and David Gaffen)