«I JUST READ EVERYTHING»

A man looking for art for his new home has won a $1m Picasso painting with a $138 raffle ticket.

Jeffrey Gonano told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review he's not sure he'll ever hang the masterpiece in his home in Wexford, in western Pennsylvania, given its value.

The 25-year-old Gonano, who works for his family's fire sprinkler business, learned Wednesday that his ticket had won the Paris raffle. Organizers say nearly 50,000 tickets were sold worldwide, for €100 apiece, to benefit a Lebanese charity. The 1914 work, Man in the Opera Hat, dates from Spanish master Pablo Picasso's cubist period. Picasso died in 1973.

Gonano said he wants to keep the artwork, which features vivid shapes in opaque gouache paint. "Maybe I'll lend it to a museum and let them put it on display rather than putting it in a vault, so other people can enjoy it," he told the newspaper. "It all depends. I don't know what the taxes are or anything."

-The Guardian

 Dec 21 2013