Imagine acquiring a valuable painting for the sum of 100 euros. The work put into play is once again a painting by Picasso. Woman’s head (Dora Maar), produced in 1941, is a gouache on paper (38.9 x 25.4 cm). The work was kept for a time by Picasso and his family. She then joined a private collection, before returning to the New York market and, more recently, to Zurich. The work is estimated at 1 million euros while the ticket price is set at 100 euros. How to do it? The public can connect to the 1picasso100euros.com website and access the “buy a ticket” section. The draw will take place on April 14, 2026, at Christie’s in Paris.
The project is led by Péri Cochin, Franco-Lebanese radio and television host, in collaboration with Olivier Picasso, grandson of the painter. The operation benefits from the approval of the Picasso Administration and its beneficiaries. The work was negotiated with Opera Gallery and its owner, Gilles Dyan. The expected funds, worth 12 million euros, will be donated to research against Alzheimer’s disease.
This type of lottery is not its first attempt. In 2019, a similar action involved a work by Picasso, Still life (1921), also valued at 1 million euros. The main organizers (CARE France, Péri Cochin, Picasso Administration and Christie’s Paris) hoped to raise 20 million euros. One million was intended for the dealer and owner of the work David Nahmad. The rest was to finance a humanitarian project of the NGO CARE in Africa. The maximum number of possible tickets was 200,000. Ultimately, 51,140 tickets were sold. Initially scheduled for January 6, 2020, the draw was postponed due to the pandemic. It was finally held on May 20, 2020. The winner is an Italian – Claudia Borgogno. In total, 5.1 million euros were raised.
The first edition dates back to 2013. The objective was to raise 5 million for the renovation of the Lebanese city of Tyre. The proposed work, The Man with the Gibus (1914), whose sale price was 735,000 euros, was won by a 25-year-old American, manager of a fire safety company in Pittsburgh.
