Parisian Wins €1M Picasso in Charity Raffle

A Parisian sales engineer won a Pablo Picasso painting valued at one million euros in a charity raffle on Tuesday, securing the artwork for the price of a 100-euro ticket. Ari Hodara, 58, was notified by organizers shortly after the random draw at Christie's auction house in Paris, where he expressed disbelief over the outcome.

Hodara, who described himself as an art enthusiast with a fondness for Picasso, purchased the ticket impulsively over the weekend. He learned of the raffle by chance during a restaurant meal and bought it online without expecting to win. "How do I check that it's not a hoax?" Hodara asked during the call from organizers. He added that he planned to share the news with his wife upon her return from work and intended to keep the painting for himself. "I was surprised, that's it," he said. "When you bet on this, you don't expect to win."

The prize, titled "Head of a Woman" or "Tête de Femme," is a gouache-on-paper portrait of Picasso's longtime muse and partner, Dora Maar, completed in 1941. The work, rendered in shades of gray, white, and cream, captures the somber atmosphere of the era while hinting at hope, according to Olivier Widmaier Picasso, the...