Parisian Engineer Wins Million Dollar Picasso With 117 Dollar Raffle Ticket

The Moment That Changed Everything

Ari Hodara couldn't believe the phone call. "How do I check that it's not a hoax?" the 58-year-old Parisian sales engineer asked after organizers told him he'd won Pablo Picasso's "Head of a Woman" painting worth $1 million. He had bought his $117 raffle ticket just over the weekend after learning about the charity lottery by chance during a restaurant meal.

The stunned winner's first thought? "First, I will tell the news to my wife, who has yet to return from work," Hodara said. "And at first, I think I'll take advantage of it and keep it." Describing himself as an art amateur fond of Picasso, Hodara had discovered the charity raffle entirely by accident.

The winning piece, painted in 1941, is a portrait of Picasso's longtime muse and partner Dora Maar. The gouache-on-paper was created during Nazi occupation in the same Paris studio where Picasso painted his masterpiece "Guernica."

A Charity Initiative With Global Impact

The "1 Picasso for 100 euros" raffle sold all 120,000 tickets worldwide, generating 12 million euros ($14 million) for charity. Roughly 11 million euros will go to the Paris-based Alzheimer Research Foundation to fund critical medical studies in France. The foundation, based in one of Paris' leading public hospitals, has become France's leading private financier of Alzheimer-related medical research since its founding in 2004.

The remaining 1 million euros will be paid to the Opera Gallery, an international art dealership that owned the painting. Gallery founder Gilles Dyan offered a preferential price for the painting, with the public price at 1.45 million euros. The initiative helps fund research into Alzheimer's, a common form of dementia that is a leading cause of death worldwide.

Picasso's grandson Olivier Widmaier Picasso believes his grandfather would have supported the raffle. "He was a very generous man," the younger Picasso said. "He was very discreet, but he loved to help his siblings, his family and friends, and also people who were in need because of the civil war in Spain, because of the Second World War in Europe."

A Pattern of Surprising Winners

This marks the third successful Picasso charity raffle. The first in 2013 saw a Pennsylvania fire-sprinkler worker win "Man in the Opera Hat" from 1914. The 2020 raffle featured "Still Life" from 1921, won by Italian accountant Claudia Borgogno, whose son bought her the ticket as a Christmas present.

The two previous raffles raised over 10 million euros combined for cultural preservation in Lebanon and water and hygiene programs in Africa. Winners can keep their paintings at museums near their homes, though selling the works remains an option. "The winner can go to any auction house and sell it there. And get the money, of course," organizers note.

Art's Democratic Future

While Pablo Picasso's paintings typically fetch more than $100 million at auction, this raffle democratizes access to masterpieces for just 100 euros ($116). The initiative represents "a modern vision of charity by offering people the option to get a real artwork" while participating in humanitarian operations.

For Picasso's grandson, the emotional value transcends money. "I'm sure that the winner, if he puts the work in his living room, for example, will benefit from an emotion which is totally different from looking at a picture on a computer," he said. "It's nice, especially in our very difficult times, to think that culture and art are maybe an escape."

As art markets become increasingly exclusive, initiatives like this suggest new ways to bridge the gap between priceless masterpieces and ordinary people. The success of three consecutive raffles proves there's appetite for accessible art ownership that serves humanitarian causes—a model that could reshape how we think about cultural treasures in the digital age.