A unique opportunity awaits art enthusiasts—a chance to own a Picasso painting valued at over $1 million for just a little more than $100. This intriguing offer comes from a French charity aiming to raise funds for Alzheimer’s research. On April 14, a raffle hosted by Christie’s in Paris will award one fortunate winner Tête de Femme, a 1941 artwork by Picasso that features a distorted female head painted in somber hues. Tickets for the raffle can be purchased online for €100 ($116) each, with sales capped at 120,000, aiming to raise €12 million ($14 million) for the Alzheimer’s Research Foundation. Out of this amount, approximately €1 million ($1.1 million) will be allocated to Opera Gallery, from where Tête de Femme originates. If ticket sales fall short of covering the painting’s cost, participants will receive a refund.
Established in 2004, the Alzheimer’s Research Foundation stands as France’s premier entity funding Alzheimer’s research, a leading form of dementia that remains incurable despite extensive study. The foundation supports clinical research initiatives and postgraduate fellowships, and post-raffle, it plans to announce a significant call for research proposals spanning Europe, the U.S., and Canada.
This initiative is the brainchild of Péri Cochin, a French TV producer, who drew inspiration from her mother’s fundraising events over a decade ago. Unlike traditional exclusive events, Cochin harnesses the power of the internet to make her Picasso raffles globally accessible. After consulting with the Picasso family foundation, with whom she shares a longstanding relationship, she received their full endorsement.
“When Péri Cochin first approached us, I immediately embraced her idea of a charity raffle, both original and compelling, placing art at the service of others,” said Claude Picasso, the artist’s son who passed away in 2023. “The public’s enthusiasm deeply moved me: it’s a way to further Picasso’s own lifelong commitment to the most vulnerable.”
This marks the third time Cochin has organized a Picasso raffle. In 2013, L’Homme au Gibus, a cubist drawing by Picasso from 1914, successfully raised €5 million ($5.8 million) to protect Tyre, a UNESCO World Heritage site in Lebanon, and to construct a crafts village. The prize went to a 25-year-old from Pennsylvania. The subsequent raffle in 2020 featured Nature Morte (1921), a flat still life depicting a glass of absinthe and a newspaper on a table. It garnered an additional €5 million for CARE, supporting clean water and hygiene projects in Africa. The winner was an accountant from Northern Italy whose son had gifted her a raffle ticket for Christmas.
