Unexpected treasure

Viewing a painting by Pablo Picasso is like looking at a great treasure, as each abstract work of the renowned Spanish master is worth millions of dollars. A 15 June raid by French police at a home linked to a drug suspect in the Paris suburb of Champigny-sur-Marne yielded a stolen Picasso with an estimated value of 12 to 15-million euros, according to Le Parisien.
The public prosecutor’s office of Creteil, southeast of Paris, said the painting was authenticated as a work by Picasso.
The title of the painting, owned by a woman in Singapore, was not mentioned, but it is believed to be part of a series of portraits of Marie Thérèse Walter, the painter’s partner and one of his most well-known muses.
Meanwhile, a French software engineer and big fan of Picasso entered a raffle of the painter’s 1941 work, Tete de Femme, donated by the Opera Gallery on 14 April.
The raffle was a fundraiser for the Fondation Recherche Alzheimer, which is working to find a cure for Alzheimer’s disease.
The 58-year-old Ari Hodara’s ticket — number 94715 — was picked in the “1 Picasso for 100 euros” raffle draw livestreamed from Paris, France. Organizers called Hodara to inform him that he had won Picasso’s gouache-on-paper depicting Walter.
Hodara, who bought only one raffle ticket for 100 euros, won the painting valued at one million euros.
But Picasso’s grandson, Olivier Widmaier Picasso, earlier told CNN the work created by his grandfather in the same studio where he painted his masterpiece “Guernica” was undervalued.
“It’s worth much more than $1 million,” said the young Picasso, according to CNN, “so it will really be a big prize.”
