You might associate raffles with pretty low stakes: pitch in a few dollars for the Girl Scouts, say, and win a chance for something like a gift card or a spa day. But now aspiring art collectors can donate just €100 (about $115) to a raffle organized by France’s Fondation Recherche Alzheimer and win the chance to take home a Pablo Picasso valued at €1 million ($1.2 million).
Entrants can buy one of 120,000 tickets at the site 1picasso100euros; the draw will take place April 14, 2026 at Christie’s Paris.
The work, a 1941 gouache on paper titled Tête de femme, measures just over 15 inches high. At a Sotheby’s London sale in 1999, it fetched £102,700 (equivalent to just under $167,000 at the time), a bit above its high estimate. It comes from the holdings of Opera Gallery, which has 14 locations worldwide, from New York to London, Paris, Seoul, Dubai, and Hong Kong.
This is the third raffle of a work by the Spaniard to support charity. In the first, in 2013, a young Pennsylvania man won a drawing valued at over $1 million in a raffle that raised €5 million for the International Association for the Safeguard of TYRE, a UNESCO World Heritage site. In the second, in 2020, which also raised €5 million, in that case for the NGO CARE, an Italian accountant won a 1921 Picasso still life valued at €1 million from the cache held by globally noted collector David Nahmad, who is a fixture, along with his family, at marquee auctions held by Christie’s and Sotheby’s.
Pablo Picasso, Tête de femme (1941). © Succession Picasso, Paris, 2025.
Behind the initiative is French TV host Péri Cochin. Claude Picasso, the artist’s late son, is quoted in press materials as saying, “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. The public’s enthusiasm deeply moved me: it’s a way to further Picasso’s own lifelong commitment to the most vulnerable.”
Founded in 2004 by French physicians Bruno Dubois and Olivier de Ladoucette, Fondation Recherche Alzheimer bills itself as the leading funder of Alzheimer’s research in France, having provided some €29 million in funding to more than 40 research teams throughout Europe. It will use the proceeds of the latest raffle to fund research into the causes of the disease, develop new treatments, and improve quality of life for patients and their families. Some 35 million people worldwide are living with Alzheimer’s, says the organization, which notes that by 2050, the number of cases could double, according to projections from the World Health Organization (WHO).
“Thanks to the public’s generosity and Picasso’s universal renown, we hope to raise substantial funds to advance research and bring hope to families affected by Alzheimer’s disease,” Ladoucette said in a statement.
