Sometimes, fortune arrives almost on a whim. For 58-year-old Ari Hodara from Paris, it came in the form of a charity ticket bought over the weekend, one that would soon place him at the centre of a glittering draw in Paris. Calling himself an amateur admirer of Picasso, he only had one question upon learning the outcome of the Christie’s auction pull: “How do I check that it’s not a hoax?”
The 58-year-old from Paris bought the raffle ticket over the weekend. Calling himself an amateur admirer of Picasso, he only had one question upon learning the outcome of the Christie’s auction pull: “How do I check that it’s not a hoax?”
The winning piece
The €1 million piece was Tête de Femme (Head of a Woman), a gouache-on-paper portrait rendered in Picasso’s signature style. It depicts his partner and muse, the French surrealist artist Dora Maar, according to the BBC.
Speaking to the organisers, Hodara, with winning ticket number 94715, said, “I was surprised, that’s it. When you bet on this, you don’t expect to win… But I’m very happy because I’m very interested in painting, and it’s great news for me.”
The uncanny case of charity
The ‘1 Picasso for €100’ lottery was held in aid of Alzheimer’s research. The organisers sold 120,000 tickets for a total of €12 million. Out of this, €1 million will be contributed towards the Opera Gallery, an international art dealership that owns the painting.
“The funding for research is ridiculous,” head of the foundation, Olivier de Ladoucette, said Tuesday, as per a France 24 report. “In our developed societies, we still haven’t understood that this is a major public health issue and that absolutely everyone needs to get involved.
“This Picasso initiative is one more building block so that one day Alzheimer’s will be nothing more than a bad memory,” he added
However, this is not the first time this charity raffle has twisted fates. In 2013, the debut edition, a man from Pennsylvania won ‘Man in Opera’, also a Picasso from 1914. The winner reportedly worked in the fire-sprinkler business. Similarly, in 2020, The Guardian reported that Italy’s Claudia Borgogno won the oil-on-canvas Still Life, whose son had purchased the ticket as a Christmas present.