€1m Picasso portrait up for grabs for €100 in charity auction | Pablo Picasso

His works are consistently among the most expensive works of art in the world, with paintings selling for over $100 million at auction. But you no longer have to be a multimillionaire to own a Picasso; Everyone in the world has the chance to buy a painting by one of the most influential artists of the 20th century for 100 Euros.

French charity Alzheimer Research Foundation recently announced that it will give away Picasso’s 1941 portrait Tête de femme, worth more than €1 million, to a single winner. Proceeds from the tickets will help fund research into Alzheimer’s, a leading cause of death and disability worldwide.

According to his grandson Olivier Picasso, the project titled “1 Picasso for 100 Euros” is the first of its kind in the world and a natural continuation of Picasso’s legacy.

“My grandfather was very generous but also sensible,” Olivier told the Guardian. “He helped his family, especially my grandmother Marie-Thérèse [Walter]. He helped friends. He helped people in need during the civil war in Spain, during the second world war and even after in the 50s and 60s.

“So for me this project is an absolutely logical and legitimate part of his legacy. I hope to be able to do this every year in the future if possible.”

The raffle is the brainchild of Péri Cochin, a French television producer and owner of tableware company Waww La Table. Cochin came up with the idea after seeing her mother use them at fundraisers she hosted.

“I thought, wouldn’t it be great to do a worldwide raffle by selling tickets online? I decided it had to be a work of art and who is the most famous name in art? Obviously it’s Picasso,” he said.

Cochin contacted his childhood friend Olivier Picasso. Once he, the rest of Picasso’s management and the Picasso estate gave their approval, he reserved the 1941 painting from the Opera gallery, which will fetch just under €1 million after the raffle.

“We’re used to hearing about Picasso and these high-priced auctions, but this was the first time Picasso was actually involved with a charity,” he said.

Olivier said the family “immediately connected with the project” because the money raised went to a good cause. There is no cure for Alzheimer’s disease and no treatment that can stop or reverse its progression. “As we now live older than before, we or the people around us may be affected by this disease. And I know how difficult and painful it is,” he added.

The goal is to raise 11 million Euros for Alzheimer’s research by selling 120,00 tickets. The draw is scheduled to take place on April 14 at Christie’s auction house in Paris. If not enough tickets are sold to cover the cost of the painting, all participants will be refunded.

Olivier said Tête de femme was a “very interesting” work made in the same studio on Paris’s Left Bank as Picasso’s 1937 masterpiece Guernica. “This period was important for my grandfather because he was coming to the end of the divorce process from his first wife, Olga Khokhlova, which never took place due to Franco abolishing the divorce law. [in 1939]although I met my grandmother and Dora Maar.

“The period was also quite complicated due to the occupation of Paris by the Nazis. So the colors are darker than normal; brown, black and grey. Even though it is a very beautiful depiction of a woman, it still has a Picasso vibe to it. My grandfather kept the painting as a memory of that moment.”

Cochin had previously organized two raffles for Picasso paintings in 2013 and 2020 and collected more than 10 million Euros in total. The first winner was Jeffrey Gonano, 25, who won a Picasso drawing worth €860,000. “He put the painting in the Pittsburg Museum for a while and now it’s in storage at Christie’s in New York because he didn’t want to keep it at home,” he said.

The second winner was accountant Claudia Borgogno from Ventimiglia, Italy, whose son gave her a raffle ticket for Christmas. He became the owner of a 1921 Picasso worth 1 million euros.

“He still has the painting, he said it would change his life. It’s a really beautiful story,” Cochin added.