When Ari Hodara learned he won a Pablo Picasso painting valued at about $1.18 million in a raffle, the first person he called was his wife.
“She didn’t believe me,” Hodara said.
Hodara, 58, bought two raffle tickets online for 100 euros each (about $118) on a whim a few nights before the raffle on Tuesday.
He had seen a news story on TV about the raffle while he was at a restaurant near his home in Paris. He figured that he likely would not win, but the raffle was raising money for Alzheimer’s research, a cause that Hodara said spoke to him because he watched a family friend suffer from the disease.
Hodara, who works in sales for a software company, said the painting — “Head of a Woman,” created in 1941 — is unlike anything he has ever owned.
“It’s a dream for me,” Hodara said. “I mean, in my life, I never thought that I would have a Picasso.”
The raffle sold 120,000 tickets and netted about $13 million for Alzheimer’s research. The draw was at Christie’s Paris.
This is the third time since 2013 the organization, 1 Picasso for 100 euros, has raffled off a Picasso painting for charity.
Péri Cochin, a French TV host who is the founder of 1 Picasso for 100 euros, said the organization was inspired by her mother’s charity work.
Her mother used to host gala dinners, which were effective at raising money, but “so boring!” Cochin joked. The dinners always ended with a raffle, and Cochin had the idea to make the raffle more accessible by selling tickets online.
She received permission from Picasso’s family to use his name for the charity raffle and purchased one of the artists’ paintings in 2013. At the raffle that year, a 25-year-old man in Pennsylvania won the prized painting.
“It was crazy,” said Jeffrey Gonano, who lives in Pittsburgh with his family.
He doesn’t display the painting, “L’homme au Gibus,” or in English, “Man in the Opera Hat,” which dates back to 1914, because it is delicate due to its age and the materials Picasso used.
But Gonano said that knowing he owns the painting has allowed him to take risks and start a roofing business, which he built and sold. He still works in construction and has a brewery, where he features local artists.
Hodara said he has always loved art, and frequently visits museums. When his children were young he often brought them along, and now he said he hopes to instill a love of art in his three grandchildren (he has another on the way.)
Hodara’s newly acquired painting is a cubist work called “Tête de Femme” in French. The artist used the title for several paintings, many of which, like this one, are portraits of his longtime partner and muse, Dora Maar, who was also an artist. This one was painted in Paris at the beginning of World War II, in the same studio where Picasso painted his masterpiece “Guernica.”
Cochin said Picasso loved the painting so much he kept it in his studio until he died.
“He did not sell it,” Cochin said. “He loved Dora Maar and he loved that portrait specifically.”
The gray color scheme was typical of that period.
“If you look before and you look after, his work was very colorful. But at this period, because he was very much affected by the war, he decided not to use color,” Cochin said.
The painting will stay at Christie’s for now — Hodara said the complexity of keeping such a famous work of art safe in his home would be too difficult to manage — but he hopes that some day he can loan the painting to a museum so he and others can visit and enjoy it.
“I don’t want to have it at home,” Hodara said. “Even if it would be a dream to have on my wall, it’s not a good idea.”
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