A new charity raffle in Paris offers a chance to win a Picasso artwork for a €100 ticket, with proceeds dedicated to Alzheimer's research. Organisers aim to sell up to 120,000 tickets for the raffle, which could generate up to €12 million if all are purchased. Of the total funds, €1 million will go to the Opera Gallery, which owns the painting, while the remaining money will support medical research through the Alzheimer Research Foundation. The exact date of the raffle draw has not been announced, and it is unclear how many tickets have been sold so far or what specific Alzheimer's research projects will receive funding.
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.
This is not the first time a Picasso work has been raffled for charity. The first raffle was held in 2013, when a fire-sprinkler worker in Pennsylvania won 'Man in the Opera Hat', painted in 1914. A second draw in 2020 awarded the oil-on-canvas 'Nature Morte' from 1921 to an Italian accountant, whose son bought the ticket as a Christmas gift. The 2020 painting was sourced from billionaire collector David Nahmad.
David Nahmad argued that Picasso would have supported the idea of raffling his work. Organisers say the previous two raffles raised more than €10 million combined.
While 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.