A Pablo Picasso painting, valued at over a million dollars, sold for the price of dinner for two. Ari Hodara is the lucky winner of the "1 Picasso for 100 euros" lottery , which offered participants the chance to win a 1941 gouache on paper by the Spanish artist titled "Tête de femme," from the Opera Gallery collection.
A solidarity initiative, with proceeds going to the Alzheimer's Research Foundation.
Hodara, who purchased winning ticket number 94,715 last weekend, is a Parisian engineer and art enthusiast. "When they called me, I thought it was a scam, a phishing attempt," he told CNN on Wednesday. "I was very, very surprised. It's a dream; I never thought I'd own a Picasso. It's beyond my reach. I usually only see them in museums."
The first edition of the "1 Picasso for 100 euros" campaign was held in 2013, with the funds raised going to the preservation of Tyre, a historic city in southern Lebanon and a UNESCO World Heritage site. A second edition, in 2020, supported drinking water and sanitation programs during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic: the winner was a woman from Ventimiglia.
(Unioneonline/D)
