It’s not every day you go out for a nice meal and end up owning a masterpiece. Ari Hodara, a 58-year-old sales engineer, was just having dinner when he stumbled upon the ‘One Picasso for 100 euros’ raffle. He bought a ticket—a total shot in the dark, really—and now he’s the owner of a painting worth €850,000.
“How do I check that it’s not a hoax?” Hodara asked after the call from the organisers. I mean, can you blame him? Getting a phone call like that at Christie’s in Paris would make anyone’s heart skip a beat. The smell of old wood and varnish at an auction house is usually the only thing you get, but he got a Picasso.
The painting is ‘Head of a Woman,’ a 1941 portrait of Dora Maar, who was Picasso’s partner and muse for years. It’s quite the piece to just have hanging in your living room, or maybe the hallway. Hodara told Misryoum he’s an art amateur, though he’s always had a bit of a soft spot for the artist. He was actually waiting for his wife to get home from work to break the news to her. Imagine that dinner conversation. ‘Honey, I bought a lottery ticket, and it turns out it’s an early 20th-century masterpiece.’
Actually, wait—he mentioned he might just keep it for now. “At first, I think I’ll take advantage of it and keep it,” he said. It’s hard to imagine anyone just selling something like that immediately anyway, right? The lottery itself was the third iteration of this fundraiser, aimed at supporting Alzheimer’s research. It managed to sell all 120,000 tickets globally, which is honestly pretty impressive for a charitable draw.
Whether he holds onto it or it eventually finds its way somewhere else, the whole thing feels like a bit of a dream. You buy a ticket on a whim, and suddenly you’re tied to the legacy of Dora Maar and one of history’s most famous painters. It’s a strange, lucky turn of events that doesn’t happen to most of us. Most of us just pay the bill and go home, but for Hodara, the night didn’t end with just a meal. It’s funny how life works—or maybe it’s just pure chance.