Paris Man Wins $1M Picasso With $117 Raffle Ticket

Ari Hodara thought someone was playing a prank when he got the call Tuesday from Christie's auction house in Paris.

The 58-year-old sales engineer had won "Head of a Woman," a 1941 Pablo Picasso painting worth $1 million, with a single $117 raffle ticket he'd purchased just days earlier. He only learned about the charity raffle by chance during a restaurant meal over the weekend.

"How do I check that it's not a hoax?" Hodara asked organizers when they called with the news. The self-described art amateur and Picasso fan said his first plan was to tell his wife when she got home from work and then keep the painting to enjoy.

The gouache-on-paper portrait depicts Dora Maar, Picasso's longtime muse and partner. It became the centerpiece of the third "1 Picasso for 100 euros" raffle, which sold all 120,000 tickets worldwide.

The raffle netted $14 million total. After paying $1 million to Opera Gallery for the artwork at a discounted price, the rest goes directly to the Alzheimer Research Foundation, France's leading private funder of Alzheimer's medical research since 2004.

This marks the third time organizers have raffled a Picasso for charity. In 2013, a Pennsylvania fire-sprinkler worker won "Man in the Opera Hat," a 1914 Cubist piece. An Italian accountant took home the 1921 "Still Life" in 2020 after her son bought her a ticket as a Christmas present.

The Ripple Effect

Those two previous raffles raised over $10 million combined for cultural programs in Lebanon and water and hygiene initiatives in Africa. This latest draw continues that legacy while tackling one of the most challenging medical conditions facing aging populations worldwide.

Gilles Dyan, founder of Opera Gallery, offered the painting at a preferential price of $1 million instead of its $1.45 million public valuation. He told reporters that Picasso, who died in 1973, would have approved of his work being raffled for such meaningful causes.

For Hodara, the win represents both a personal dream come true and a contribution to vital medical research, all from a spontaneous decision over dinner.