Paris Raffle Offers Picasso for €100 to Fund Alzheimer's

For the price of a nice dinner, you could take home a Picasso and help fight Alzheimer's disease.

A new charity raffle launching in Paris offers participants the chance to win "Tête de Femme," a 1941 gouache portrait by Pablo Picasso, for just €100 per ticket. The initiative aims to sell up to 120,000 tickets, potentially raising €12 million for Alzheimer's research through France's Alzheimer Research Foundation.

The artwork will be displayed at Christie's Paris galleries before the draw takes place on April 14. After €1 million goes to the Opera Gallery that owns the painting, the remaining €11 million will fund medical research into a disease affecting millions of families worldwide.

This marks the third Picasso raffle of its kind. The first, held in 2013, saw a Pennsylvania fire sprinkler worker win "Man in the Opera Hat" from 1914. In 2020, an Italian accountant whose son bought him a Christmas ticket walked away with the oil painting "Nature Morte" from 1921.

Those previous raffles raised over €10 million combined, funding cultural programs in Lebanon and water projects across Africa. Now organizers are directing that same creative fundraising power toward health research.

The Ripple Effect

The concept honors Picasso's own generous spirit. Billionaire collector David Nahmad, who donated the 2020 painting, noted that the artist regularly gave his work to everyday people in his life.

"Picasso was very generous. He gave paintings to his driver, his tailor," Nahmad explained. "He wanted his art to be collected by all kinds of people, not only by the super-rich."

That philosophy transforms how we think about both art ownership and charitable giving. Instead of a Picasso disappearing into a private collection, it becomes a vehicle for thousands of people to contribute small amounts toward major research funding.

For Alzheimer's, a disease that currently has no cure and affects over 55 million people globally, sustained research funding is critical. Every €100 ticket represents not just a chance at owning a masterpiece, but a concrete investment in potential treatments and breakthroughs.

The raffle democratizes two things at once: access to world-class art and the ability to make a meaningful difference in medical research.

One lucky ticket holder will win a piece of art history, but thousands of contributors will share in funding hope for millions of families touched by Alzheimer's.

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