Pablo Picasso's masterpieces can fetch millions. On Wednesday night, however, one lucky art lover took possession of an original work – conservatively valued at 1 million euros – for a comparatively modest outlay of 100euros, reports The Guardian.
L'Homme au Gibus (Man with Opera Hat), a gouache on paper work measuring 30.5cm by 24cm, was disposed of by tombola at the Sotheby's auction house in Paris. It is the first time a work by a major painter has been offered in such a way.
Money raised from the sale of raffle tickets, 50,000 of which have been available online since April, will go towards helping the ancient Phoenician city of Tyre, in southern Lebanon, a Unesco world heritage site that was severely damaged during the Lebanese civil war in the 1970s and 1980s and has also been threatened by growing urban development.
Olivier Picasso, the artist's grandson, and Péri Cochin, a French journalist of Iraqi and Lebanese descent, came up with the idea as an alternative to "boring" fundraising gala dinners.
"This is a very important drawing because it first stands witness to the cubist work carried out by my grandfather," said Picasso, son of Maya, the artist's daughter by his mistress Marie-Thérèse Walter.
Read more of this report from The Guardian.