A 1941 Picasso gouache could be yours for a €100 raffle ticket — and every entry funds one of Europe's most active Alzheimer's research foundations.
The painting, Tête de femme, is small enough to hold in two hands but valued at €1 million. It's being offered by Opera Gallery, a network of galleries across 14 cities worldwide, as part of a charity initiative launched by French TV host Péri Cochin. The raffle is organized by Fondation Recherche Alzheimer, which has distributed €29 million to over 40 research teams across Europe since 2004.
This isn't the foundation's first gamble on art. In 2013, a young man from Pennsylvania won a Picasso drawing worth over $1 million. Seven years later, an Italian accountant took home a 1921 still life valued at €1 million — that raffle alone raised €5 million for research.
We're a new kind of news feed.
Regular news is designed to drain you. We're a non-profit built to restore you. Every story we publish is scored for impact, progress, and hope.
Start Your News DetoxWhy This Matters Now
Alzheimer's affects 35 million people globally, and the World Health Organization projects that number could double by 2050. Most cases remain poorly understood, and treatments remain limited. Research funding is the bottleneck — not just in money, but in sustained, coordinated effort across institutions.
Fondation Recherche Alzheimer sits at the center of European efforts to change that. The foundation funds basic science into what causes the disease to start, clinical trials for new treatments, and programs that improve daily life for patients and their families. A single €5 million injection, like the last raffle generated, can support multiple teams for years.
Claude Picasso, the artist's late son, gave his blessing to the initiative. "When Péri Cochin first approached us, I immediately embraced her idea of a charity raffle, both original and compelling, placing art at the service of others," he said.
The math is straightforward: enough people buying a €100 ticket creates a research budget that wouldn't exist otherwise. One person walks away with a painting that sold for £102,700 at Sotheby's in 1999. Thousands of others fund the work that might one day prevent their parents from forgetting their names.
Tickets are being sold now through the foundation's website.
