This Raffle Is Your Chance to Snag a $1M Picasso For Just $117

Pablo Picasso, “Tête de femme,” 1941. Gouache on paper, 15.3 x 10. (Photo: © Succession Picasso, Paris, 2025; press use courtesy of Christie’s)

On November 24, 2025, 1 Picasso for 100 Euros launched its third edition in support of Alzheimer’s research. As its name suggests, the international charity raffle will sell tickets for €100 (about $117) for a chance to win a small painting by Pablo Picasso, valued at a staggering €1 million (about $1.17 million). All the funds generated from the initiative will be donated to the Alzheimer’s Research Foundation, which was established in 2004 to support clinical research throughout France and the rest of Europe.

Produced in 1941, Picasso’s Tête de Femme (Head of a Woman) depicts a woman rendered in monochromatic tones, her eyes wide and almost bewildered. The gouache-on-paper portrait was painted during a particularly turbulent moment for the artist, amid the collapse of his marriage with his first wife, Olga Khokhlova. The period was “extremely complicated” for Picasso, according to his grandson, Olivier Picasso, who added that the painting’s muted color palette reflects the artist’s unhappiness during the time.

“Associating the name of Pablo Picasso to charity, a charitable purpose, is very important because my grandfather was very generous with the people around him,” Olivier said in a recent interview with The New York Times.

Tête de Femme comes to 1 Picasso for 100 Euros from the Opera Gallery, whose board includes Olivier. Raffle organizer Péri Cochin, a French television producer and childhood friend of Olivier’s, suggested to him that the portrait headline the initiative, which she hopes will sell 120,000 tickets. That amount, per Cochin, will not only cover the cost of the painting itself, but also raise some €11 million (about $12.91 million) for the Alzheimer’s Research Foundation.

“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,” says Dr. Olivier de Ladoucette, the Foundation’s president.

For its first edition, held in 2013, 1 Picasso for 100 Euros raffled off Picasso’s L’Homme au Gibus, a gouache-on-paper work from 1914 valued at €860,000 (about $1 million). A 25-year-old named Jeffrey Gonano ultimately won the drawing, which raised more than €5 million (about $5.8 million) in donations to the preservation of Tyre, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Lebanon. While raffling off Picasso’s Nature Morte in 2020, the organization once again drew in over €5 million in support of the rehabilitation of wells across Africa. That year, Claudia Borgogno of Ventimiglia, Italy, won the Picasso, all thanks to her son, who bought her the raffle ticket for Christmas.

Drawing for Tête de Femme is slated for April 14, 2026, at Christie’s in Paris. The draw will occur under the supervision of a bailiff, and will be streamed live online as well. To learn more about the initiative and purchase your own raffle ticket, visit the 1 Picasso for 100 Euros website.