Entering a raffle, the more conventional prizes one might win include boxes of chocolates, questionably elaborate bath bombs, or perhaps a bottle of bubbly. Claudia Borgogno won a Picasso.
The raffle, the proceeds of which are going towards providing water for villagers in Cameroon and Madagascar, had the prize draw on Wednesday, following a Covid-19 related delay. The sale of the 51,140 tickets were spread across more than one hundred countries, though the majority were sold in Switzerland, the US, Italy and France.
Borgogno, whose son bought the ticket for her as a Christmas present, was amazed at her good fortune. Indeed, she said: “I have never won anything before.” The prospect of hanging a Picasso on her wall at home was yet to sink in.
The piece, called Nature Morte, or Still Life, has been given a pedestrian value of €1 million. David Nahmad, the billionaire who donated the piece, said that the piece was worth between two and three times that much.
The painting was the smallest of the 300 Picassos that Nahmad owns. He maintains his position as holding the largest private collection of the painter.
Lorenzo Naso, Borgogno's son, bought two tickets in December and posted one to his mother. “It was maybe the best decision in my life,” he notes.
He continued that the win came as a shock to he and his mother alike and confesses that he had forgotten about the draw entirely. When the call came from organisers to congratulate him on his win, he told his mother – “When I arrived and I told her she has won she was like: ‘Please don’t joke’,” he said.
He concluded: “It was a pretty awful period for us during this lockdown and now its great news.”
