{"id":7892,"date":"2026-04-21T06:11:36","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T06:11:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/7892\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T06:11:36","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T06:11:36","slug":"paris-man-wins-1-2-million-picasso-painting-in-charity-raffle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/7892\/","title":{"rendered":"Paris Man Wins $1.2 Million Picasso Painting in Charity Raffle"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pablo Picasso paintings can be expensive. One sold at an auction in 2023 for $139.4 million<\/a>. Another sold in 2015 for $179.4 million<\/a>.<\/p>\n

So when Ari Hodara, a 58-year-old software salesman from Paris, saw an opportunity to win a Picasso for the price of a $118 charity raffle ticket, he bought two.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, forgetting the day of the drawing, he received a confusing phone call that he first thought was a phishing scam: He had won.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was surprised,\u201d Hodara said in an interview. \u201cI\u2019m not a gambler, so I didn\u2019t expect to win. It was just for fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

The painting Hodara will receive, \u201cT\u00eate de femme,\u201d is worth more than one million euros, or roughly $1.2 million. It was completed in 1941 and once hung in the artist\u2019s home, according to P\u00e9ri Cochin, the founder of the French charity 1 Picasso for 100 Euros<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The charity raised 12 million euros in the raffle, which had participants from dozens of countries. One million will cover the cost of the painting and the rest will be given to the Alzheimer\u2019s Research Foundation, which raises money for clinical research programs, funds doctoral and postdoctoral fellowships and promotes the sharing of research.<\/p>\n

Giving money to Alzheimer\u2019s research was a worthy cause, Hodara said, and winning the painting also aligned with his interest in art.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have some paintings, but not like a Picasso,\u201d he said, adding that his collection includes about 10 works. \u201cPicasso represents something incredible for me and for everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n

The black, brown and gray portrait, which measures 15.3 inches by 10 inches, is of Dora Maar<\/a>, Picasso\u2019s muse, lover and model for many of his portraits of women, Cochin said. Maar was also a recognized photographer and celebrated Surrealist.<\/p>\n

Cochin said the painting was quintessential Picasso.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s completely Cubist period,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s a very, very beautiful and strong portrait of her.\u201d<\/p>\n

Olivier Picasso, Pablo Picasso\u2019s grandson, told The New York Times in December<\/a> that the portrait was painted during a difficult patch in his grandfather\u2019s marriage to Olga Khokhlova, noting that the dark colors reflected his grandfather\u2019s unhappiness at that time.<\/p>\n

The painting was previously owned by Opera Gallery, which has several locations around the world; the Picasso Estate and Christie\u2019s were also partners in the raffle.<\/p>\n

Cochin said she chose to raffle this particular work because of its price and subject matter, adding that some other available works did not portray ideas she wanted to promote. The painting is in good condition, she said, and was ready to hang.<\/p>\n

This is the third raffle organized by 1 Picasso for 100 Euros. In 2020, an Italian man won after buying a ticket for his mother as a Christmas gift. Seven years earlier, a 25-year-old Pennsylvania man named Jeffrey Gonano won a Picasso work on paper.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just been in storage since, I haven\u2019t seen it in over 10 years,\u201d Gonano, now 38, recently said by phone. The Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh initially took the painting on loan, and it was then sent off to Manhattan, where Christie\u2019s stores and insures it, he said.<\/p>\n

Gonano\u2019s Picasso, \u201cL\u2019Homme au Gibus,\u201d was completed more than a century ago. \u201cYou can\u2019t really keep it on display,\u201d he said, adding that the piece was delicate and sensitive to light. \u201cI think you can only have it on display like six weeks out of the year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gonano said he had no current plans for the painting but would consider selling it if he received a \u201ccrazy offer.\u201d He does, however, daydream about bringing it home.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe technology will advance enough where I can somehow store it in my house without it deteriorating,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

For security reasons, Hodara has not decided whether to bring home his Picasso. \u201cSometimes not everybody has a good mind about that,\u201d he said, pointing to its value, \u201cso I\u2019m a little bit nervous about it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pablo Picasso paintings can be expensive. One sold at an auction in 2023 for $139.4 million. Another sold…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7893,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[6422,5091,5187,2115,6419,6421,30,3825,6420,4465],"class_list":{"0":"post-7892","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-paris","8":"tag-1-picasso-for-100-euros","9":"tag-alzheimers-disease","10":"tag-ari-hodara","11":"tag-art","12":"tag-lotteries","13":"tag-pablo","14":"tag-paris","15":"tag-paris-france","16":"tag-philanthropy","17":"tag-picasso"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7892","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7892"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7892\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}