In a surprising turn of events, a 58-year-old man in Paris won a Pablo Picasso painting worth $1 million after buying a raffle ticket for just $117.
According to a report on NPR, the winner, Ari Hodara, said his first reaction was disbelief. “How do I check that it’s not a hoax?” he said after organisers called him following the draw at Christie’s auction house.
Hodara, a sales engineer and self-described art enthusiast, said he bought the ticket over the weekend after hearing about the raffle by chance while dining at a restaurant.
“First, I will tell the news to my wife, who has yet to return from work,” he said. “And at first, I think I’ll take advantage of it and keep it.”
The prize was Head of a Woman, a 1941 portrait by Pablo Picasso depicting
his longtime muse Dora Maar. The artwork was part of the third edition of the “1 Picasso for 100 euros” charity raffle. Organisers said all 120,000 tickets were sold worldwide, raising 12 million euros (about $14 million). Of that amount, 1 million euros will go to the Opera Gallery, which owned the painting.
The remaining funds will support Alzheimer’s research. The raffle was organised by the Alzheimer Research Foundation, which is based in one of Paris’ leading public hospitals and focuses on funding medical research into the disease.
This is not the first time such a raffle has been held. Earlier editions in 2013 and 2020 also gave away Picasso works, with winners including a U.S. worker and an Italian accountant. Together, those raffles raised more than 10 million euros for charitable causes, including cultural projects in Lebanon and water and hygiene programmes in Africa.
The gallery’s founder, Gilles Dyan, said the painting was offered at a preferential price, below its public valuation of 1.45 million euros.
For Hodara, the win came down to a moment of chance, a ticket bought casually over a meal that ended up securing a piece of art history.
