American Wins $1mn Picasso for Just 100 Euros

After paying a mere 100 euros ($135), a US ticket-holder in a worldwide online charity raffle walked away with an exquisite $1 million Picasso, Sotheby's said after organising the first-of-its-kind tombola.

After paying a mere 100 euros ($135), a US ticket-holder in a worldwide online charity raffle walked away with an exquisite $1 million Picasso, Sotheby's said after organising the first-of-its-kind tombola.

The perfectly preserved Cubist artwork had been bought by an anonymous donor from a New York gallery and given to a charity working to save the ancient city of Tyre in southern Lebanon.

$1mn Picasso Yours for Just $135 at an Online Charity Raffle
What about an exquisite $1 million Picasso for the living room or for a Christmas present, yours for just $135 at an online charity raffle.

The UNESCO-registered charity issued 50,000 tickets at 100 euros each for the tombola at Sotheby's in Paris, hoping to raise $5 million.

The lucky winner in the raffle was 25-year-old Jeffrey Gonano from Pennsylvania, who works for a fire protection company.

The charity wants the money to develop a traditional handicraft village giving young people, women and the disabled jobs in Tyre and to set up an institute for Phoenician studies in Beirut.

Sale of $11.5 Million Picasso Painting Blocked By US Government
The US government said that US authorities blocked the sale of a Pablo Picasso painting following a request from Italy.

Olivier Picasso, Pablo's grandson, was among those drumming up interest in the 40,000-odd tickets.

"Buy a ticket and enjoy a double pleasure," Olivier, whose grandmother Marie-Therese Walter was Picasso's mistress, had told AFP.

Distinguishing Between Monet and Picasso Paintings Are Honeybees
A new study has claimed that honeybees have a highly developed capacity for processing complex visual information, and can distinguish landscape scenes, types of flowers, and even human faces.

"The first one will be to help a really interesting project and the second one is, hey, maybe to get a Picasso on your wall."

People from all over the world went online to buy just one or a handful of tickets at www.1picasso100euros.com.

MF Husain Dies in Exile
Maqbool Fida Husain, known as the Picasso of India, died in Royal Brompton Hospital, London, early this morning.

Picasso is almost as famous for his chronic infidelities and succession of beautiful muses as for the genius of his work that makes his masterpieces some of the most expensive on the planet.

Although Olivier never met his grandfather, he has written books about the life of the 20th century art genius and is convinced that Picasso would have approved of the pre-Christmas tombola.

"In many ways he was excited about exploration, so for sure being the first one to be in a raffle would be exciting but more seriously he was really concerned by other people's problems.

"In the '50s for example he was receiving something like 100 requests per day for money, for participations, for a gift and I've been told most of the requests were answered," he said.

Olivier, who says he has many Picassos of his own, described the signed "L'Homme au Gibus" or "Man in the Opera Hat", painted in 1914, as a "masterpiece" of museum standard in perfect condition.

The International Association to Save Tyre (AIST) says it is the first time that a top-level piece of art has ever been raffled.

Their publicity drive began in Paris, moved to London and finished in New York. The website functioned in Arabic, English, French and Russian to widen the net of potential buyers.

Source-AFP