A Paris executive wins a 'Picasso' valued at one million for only 100 euros in a raffle

It was like any major contemporary art auction. In a room under the unmistakable logo of Christie's, with the audience filling the space... and the artwork in a corner of the stage, highlighted to emphasize its prominence. Its estimated price: one million euros. But there was neither a gavel nor a fight over who would take it home. And this despite having 120,000 bidders. But the final price was laughable: 100 euros. That's what the winner, Parisian account executive Ari Hodara, paid for Pablo Picasso's 'Tête de Femme' ('Head of a Woman', 1941), after purchasing ticket number 94,715 which turned out to be the winning ticket in this raffle that received 'bids' from around the world. The best news comes from behind all this staging, as the organization managed to hang the 'sold out' sign by selling all the tickets for this lottery and has raised 12 million euros which, after deducting the artwork, will be allocated to Alzheimer's research.

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The global raffle was broadcast live this Tuesday afternoon and had an excitement similar to that of major auctions, although here the interest was in finding out the name of the new collector of a millionaire 'picasso'. This information was revealed gradually, as an image of a world map first showed that the new owner was French, then it was discovered that he lived in Paris, and finally, his name was revealed, Ari Hodara, who works at a company providing AI and cloud services to large corporations. The announcement of the award was in the style of the show 'El hormiguero' with its famous card, as the Franco-Lebanese television producer and presenter of the event, Péri Cochin, called the winner to inform him and got the answering machine, to the disappointment of those present.

The new owner of the 'picasso' takes home a gouache on paper representative of one of the artist's most personally difficult periods: the Nazi occupation of Paris

Nevertheless, the host of the lottery insisted and, on the second try, the winner did answer the video call, expressing his happiness for winning this unique global raffle. The new owner of the 'picasso' takes home a gouache on paper representative of one of the artist's most personally difficult periods, the Nazi occupation of Paris, which followed the setback already posed by the civil war for the artist from Malaga. Experts point out that for this 1941 Cubist portrait, the model was his then-partner, also an artist and photographer Dora Maar, and it is a piece that visualizes the painter's mood at the time, with a somber palette, shades of grey between white and black, reflecting the anguish and sadness of the war.

The new owner of the painting, Ari Hodara, is the third to acquire a million-euro artwork through this global lottery, as there have been two previous editions of the artistic raffle. In the first edition, a fire system worker in the United States also won a work by the artist from Malaga, while in the second, an Italian accountant won the prize with a ticket gifted by her son for Christmas. In no case have the winners been major collectors, but rather anonymous individuals, which is the spirit of this draw: to allow anyone to display a 'picasso' in their living room for only 100 euros.

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One million of the money raised will be allocated to pay for the painting 'Tête de Femme', a preferential price made possible thanks to the Parisian art gallery Opera and the descendants of Pablo Picasso, as in a real auction this original work would have fetched a higher price. The rest of the funds raised in this great charitable raffle, eleven million euros, will benefit the Fondation Recherche Alzheimer, whose president, Dr. Olivier de Ladoucette, described the idea of holding "a global lottery with a unique prize" as "brilliant". The amount will be invested in research against this disease, which also affects a staggering number in the world: 40 million people.