Paris man bought a $117 raffle ticket — and won a million-dollar Pablo Picasso painting. His first question had everyone laughing
He spent just $117 on a charity raffle. Ari Hodara just won a $1.1 million Picasso in Paris
For most people, a casual dinner out ends with a bill, but for Ari Hodara, it led to a million-dollar masterpiece. The 58-year-old sales engineer from Paris was dining at a restaurant over the weekend when he stumbled upon a charity raffle and decided to buy a $117 ticket without thinking much of it. However, on Tuesday, 14th April, as per ABC7, that spontaneous decision paid off big time. The winner was announced live and shared later by DWS News.
Hodara, whose ticket number was 94,715, was announced as the winner of Pablo Picasso's 1941 portrait, "Head of a Woman," a stunning gouache-on-paper work valued at over $1 million at Christie's auction house in the French capital. "How do I check that it's not a hoax?" he said, after being contacted for the first time. "First, I will tell the news to my wife, who has yet to return from work," he continued. "And at first, I think I'll take advantage of it and keep it."
Nonetheless, while the new owner of the 1941 artwork by the Spanish master figures out what he will do with the piece, this third edition of "1 Picasso for 100 euros" fundraising raffle turns out to be a great success. Organisers said that more than 120,000 tickets for the prize draw were sold, raising nearly $12 million. Of this, nearly $1 million will be paid to the Opera Gallery, an international art dealership that owned the painting.
After which, the rest of the money will be used to fund Alzheimer's research, which is backed heavily by the former artist's family. Previously, in the last two raffles, including the first one in 2013, which saw a Pennsylvania man at a fire-sprinkler business win "Man in the Opera Hat," which the Spanish master painted in 1914 during his Cubist period, raised close to $10 million. This money was used for cultural work in Lebanon and water and hygiene programs in Africa.
However, while this million-dollar artwork is truly a blessing for Hodara and his wife, it doesn't even come close to some of the most valued paintings in the world. According to Veranda, Salvator Mundi by Leonardo da Vinci, which was sold at an auction for $450 million, is the most expensive one. It is closely followed by Interchange by Willem de Kooning and The Card Players by Paul Cézanne, valued at $350 million and $250 million, respectively.
While this painting might not rank in this list, it remains a brilliant piece of art nonetheless, with French journalist Peri Coachin concluding the historic raffle with the backing of Picasso's family and foundation. Moreover, it will without a doubt change the lives of their new owners, who are just a normal Parisian couple.
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