On a livestreamed ceremony hosted by iconic auction house Christie’s in Paris Tuesday, a 58-year-old Paris-based engineer walked away with a priceless original Pablo Picasso artwork as the grand prize of a high-profile charity fundraiser dedicated to Alzheimer’s disease research.
Ari Hodara, a self-described art enthusiast, only purchased his raffle ticket a few days before the draw over the weekend, beating out more than 119,999 other participants from 52 countries around the globe. The piece up for grabs, titled *Tête de femme* (translated to Woman’s Head), is a 1941 gouache portrait in moody shades of ink gray and blue, depicting Dora Maar — one of Picasso’s most famous muses and creative partners. The work is valued at over one million euros, and was acquired specifically for the raffle from private art dealer Opera Gallery.
When auction house representatives called to notify Hodara of his win, the shocked engineer initially questioned if the announcement was an elaborate prank. This is the third such charity raffle organized since 2013, led by French journalist Peri Cochin with official backing from the Picasso family and the Picasso Foundation. The first two events, held in 2013 and 2020, awarded the iconic artist’s work to a 25-year-old from Pennsylvania, United States, and an Italian accountant from Ventimiglia who received her ticket as a Christmas gift from her son, respectively.
Each of the 120,000 sold tickets was priced at 100 euros (equivalent to roughly $118), generating a total of 12 million euros in proceeds. All funds will be donated to the Alzheimer’s Research Foundation to accelerate critical research into the neurodegenerative condition.
Olivier de Ladoucette, head of the Alzheimer’s Research Foundation, emphasized the urgent need for broader investment in Alzheimer’s work during Tuesday’s ceremony. He noted that current funding for research into the disease remains severely inadequate, even in wealthy developed nations, arguing that the public has yet to recognize Alzheimer’s as a pressing public health crisis that demands collective action. “This Picasso initiative is one more building block so that one day Alzheimer’s will be nothing more than a bad memory,” he added.