Entertainment

Pablo Picasso artwork set for 100-euro charity raffle

Sotheby's Paris is giving away a masterpiece by Pablo Picasso for just €100 euros ($146 Cdn) in an unusually affordable charity raffle.

Raffle for cubist-era work to benefit charity

Pablo Picasso's 1914 cubist drawing L'homme au Gibus (Man with Opera Hat) will be part of an online Christmas raffle launched by the artist's grandson. Fans can bid 100 euros to win the original work. A total of 50,000 tickets are for sale. (Remy de la Mauviniere/Associated Press)

For aspiring art collectors everywhere, there is hope.

Sotheby's Paris is giving away a $1 million masterpiece by Pablo Picasso for just €100 euros ($146 Cdn) in an unusually affordable charity raffle.

The 1914 work Man in the Opera Hat, which features vivid shapes in opaque gouache paint, dates from the Spanish master's cubist period.

Raffle tickets — limited to 50,000 — have been available online since April. The draw takes place Dec. 18.

The International Association for the Safeguard of Tyre owns the Picasso, and hopes to raise €5 million ($7.3 million Cdn) to protect the ancient Lebanese city of Tyre, a UNESCO heritage site.

The painter's grandson, Olivier Picasso, said in a statement that his grandfather, who died in 1973, would have been "amused to participate in an event like this."