1 Picasso for 1€!
I wandered around the internet looking for some rare gem to offer me for Christmas, something particularly cool or artsy. I am myself starting a little collection of modern and contemporary art, and thought that I had been an awful good guy, this year, and I deserved a super gift.
Living alone is never a good choice, because you have to reward yourself on your own…
So, I was browsing on the net, and came across this news which I want to share with you: a French non for-profit organization made a lottery over a Picasso’s nature morte, and the ticket was 100€ (110$, more or less). 200 thousand tickets and that’s it. Winning a million euros estimated painting!
Pablo Picasso, Nature Morte, Oil on canvas22,9 cm x 45,7 cmSigned and dated in the top left corner.
© Succession Picasso, Paris, 2019
Here for the information on the painting.
Back in 2013 the same organization made the same lottery, and another Picasso has been caught for that amount of money and guess what: an american guy won it. His name is Jeffrey Gonano, a 30 years old American from Wexford, Pennsylvania.
The 1 Picasso for 100 euros operation is organised by Aider les Autres (Help the Others), who aims to raise funds from the public and distribute them to charitable organisations with operations on the ground. After the success of the 2013 edition, they created Aider les Autres to perpetuate the concept of this raffle and to run an annual edition, to the benefit of a different organisation each year.
L'Homme au Gibus, 1914,
This painting has been won in 2013
© Succession Picasso, Paris, 2013
This year Aider Les Autres is giving the founds to Care International to build and rehabilitate wells, washing facilities and toilets in villages and schools in: Cameroun, Madagascar and Morocco. It’s estimate that 200,000 people will be positively impacted. “Water is dignity, and water is life”, as they say.
So why don’t we try our chance and help somebody else, plus feeling the thrill of winning at the lottery? As a collector and (or most of all) a human being, I purchased my ticket and, frankly, even if I don’t win, I made myself the most beautiful gift for Christmas: believing that a better world is possible, and contribute, a little, to its Renaissance.
Aider les Autres works with the permission of the Picasso Administration and in partnership with the Picasso Estate.
Find your ticket and all the information here. And for the extraction, rendez-vous on January 6th live on their website.
Merry Christmas to all of you, may all your dreams come true.