Organizers aim to sell up to 120,000 tickets, and if all are purchased, the raffle could generate up to €12 million. Of this total, €1 million will go to the Opera Gallery, which owns the painting, while the remaining funds will support medical research through the Alzheimer Research Foundation. The artwork up for grabs is 'Tête de Femme,' a gouache on paper created by Picasso in 1941.
The portrait reflects a later period in Picasso's career, decades after his early Cubist experiments. The painting will be displayed publicly at Christie's Paris galleries ahead of the draw. The first raffle was held in 2013, and a fire-sprinkler worker in Pennsylvania won 'Man in the Opera Hat,' painted in 1914.
Picasso was very generous. He gave paintings to his driver, his tailor. He wanted his art to be collected by all kinds of people, not only by the super-rich.
A second draw in 2020 awarded the oil-on-canvas 'Nature Morte' from 1921 to an Italian accountant, whose son had bought the ticket as a Christmas gift. The 2020 painting was sourced from billionaire collector David Nahmad. According to Euronews, David Nahmad argued that Picasso would have supported the idea of raffling his work.
The previous two raffles raised more than €10 million combined. The previous raffles funded cultural initiatives in Lebanon and water and hygiene programmes in parts of Africa. This latest edition shifts the focus to health, backing research into Alzheimer's disease through one of France's leading hospital-based foundations.