Man wins €1m Picasso painting in €100 charity raffle

Man wins €1m Picasso painting in €100 charity raffle7 hours agoShareSaveAdd as preferred on GoogleIan AikmanEPAAri Hodara, appearing on the phone screen, was drawn at random from more than 120,000 ticket-buyers worldwide, who each paid €100 to enterA man has won an original Pablo Picasso painting worth more than €1m (£870,000; $1.2m) in a charity raffle.Ari Hodara, an engineer and art enthusiast, learned he was the winner on Tuesday when he answered a video call from Christie's auction house in Paris. "How do I know this isn't a prank?" the 58-year-old asked when he was told he was the new owner of the 1941 work by the Spanish master.Organisers said more than 120,000 tickets for the prize draw were sold at €100 (£87; $118) each, raising around €11m (£10m; $13m) for Alzheimer's research.The draw was the third edition of the "1 Picasso for 100 euros" fundraising raffle, which was founded in 2013.This year's prize was Tête de Femme (Head of a Woman), a gouache-on-paper portrait rendered in Picasso's signature style. It depicts his partner and muse, the French surrealist artist Dora Maar."I was surprised, that's it," said Hodara during a phone call with auctioneers after the draw. "When you bet on this, you don't expect to win... But I'm very happy because I'm very interested in painting, and it's great news for me."Hodara's ticket was number 94,715. He said he bought it over the weekend after learning about the competition by chance. French journalist Peri Cochin organised the raffle with backing from Picasso's family and foundation. She said it was a "great thing" that the winner lived in Paris, despite tickets being sold in dozens of countries worldwide."It's going to be very easy for us to deliver the painting, so we're happy," she said.The city is also where Picasso himself lived and worked for much of his life, and thousands of the arti...