Ari Hodara Wins €1M Picasso Painting with €100 Charity Raffle Ticket

Ari Hodara thought someone was playing a joke when Christie's auction house called Tuesday to tell him he'd won. The 58-year-old Parisian engineer had bought his €100 raffle ticket just days earlier after stumbling across the charity event while dining out.

The prize is Picasso's "Head of a Woman," painted in 1941 using gouache on paper. The artwork is worth more than €1 million.

The raffle was organized to raise money for Alzheimer's research. Organizers capped ticket sales at 120,000, meaning they could raise up to €12 million if all tickets sold.

Hodara, who describes himself as an art enthusiast, initially asked organizers "How do I check that it's not a hoax?" when they called with the news. Christie's, one of the world's most famous auction houses, handled the drawing to ensure it was legitimate.