A $1 million Picasso is due to be sold for just $116

By Jake McGowan, CNN

(CNN) — For the price of a dinner in Paris, somebody will soon walk away with a Picasso valued at more than $1 million.

The “1 Picasso for 100 euros” raffle offers entrants the chance to take home the artist’s 1941 gouache “Tête de Femme.” The price of a ticket is — as the name of the contest suggests — 100 euros, or about $116.

A total of 120,000 tickets are available for the drawing on April 14. Proceeds will be donated to the Alzheimer’s Research Foundation, which supports clinical research into the disease across Europe.

This is the third edition of the campaign. The first “1 Picasso for 100 euros” was held in 2013, with funds donated to the preservation of Tyre, a historic city in Southern Lebanon. A second edition in 2020 supported clean water and hygiene programs during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Olivier Widmaier Picasso, grandson of the legendary Spanish artist, told CNN’s Paula Newton that his grandfather created “Tête de Femme” in the same studio where he painted his masterpiece “Guernica.”

He said he believed the work is being undervalued. “It’s worth much more than $1 million,” Widmaier Picasso said, “so it will be really a big prize.”

Picassos have fetched staggering sums at auction in the past. “Les Femmes d’Alger (Version ‘O’)” sold for more than $179 million in 2015.

The Opera Gallery, which donated the painting, says Pablo Picasso was in Paris when he painted “Tête de Femme.” World War II was raging across Europe and much of France was under German occupation.

“Tête de Femme” is about 15 inches tall and 10 inches wide. The woman’s expression, painted in different shades of gray, is intentionally distorted in Picasso’s signature Cubist style. The Opera Gallery says the gouache reflects a moment of introspection and concentrated studio work for the artist.

Widmaier Picasso says that a friend of his came up with the “1 Picasso for 100 euros” initiative.

“She thought it was a modern vision of charity by offering people the option to get a real artwork of my grandfather and to participate in humanitarian operations,” he said.

Widmaier Picasso believes his grandfather would support “1 Picasso for 100 euros.”

“My grandfather was a pioneer in many ways,” he said. “I think that he was always very interested in participating in new things. I would say that today he would have been interested in video or maybe in artificial intelligence.”

Widmaier Picasso says whoever wins “Tête de Femme” is free to do whatever they would like with it. The winner of the first contest, for example, decided to display their prize in a museum.

“Anyone can do what they want,” he said. “They can keep it in the living room, they can show it in an exhibition — or they can resell it.”

Widmaier Picasso said his grandfather would agree with letting the winner decide, because that’s how he operated.

He said his grandmother, Marie-Thérèse Walter, who was only 17 years old when Picasso began a romantic relationship with her, was showered with art. The artist was in his mid-forties at the time, married with a young son.

Marie-Thérèse Walter’s features appeared in Picasso’s work over the next decade. Widmaier Picasso says his grandfather repaid her for the years of inspiration.

“When my grandfather was giving artworks, it was forever,” he said. “It was a decision – you do what you want with it. Pablo gave a lot of artworks to his lady, and she kept everything until she died. So I’m offering all options.”

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