‘Small’ $1.1 million Picasso work to be raffled off for charity

MONACO — Billionaire art collector David Nahmad can’t fully recall why he bought “Nature Morte,” a charmingly simple oil on canvas that Pablo Picasso painted in 1921.

Given that Nahmad owns about 300 of the Spanishgenius’ works, his forgetfulness is perhaps understandable. With such a princely trove — Nahmad says his Picasso collection is the world’s largest in private hands — details sometimes get lost.

“We bought so many Picassos now, I don’t remember the specific reason,“Nahmad said.

“It’s the smallest painting that I have.“

Not for much longer.

A very lucky someone, somewhere, will soon be joining Nahmad in the privileged club of Picasso owners, when “Nature Morte” is raffled off for charity this month.

Tickets, sold online, are $113 each. The winner of a similar raffle in 2013 was a 25-yearold fire sprinkler worker from Pennsylvania.

Nahmad, one of the art world’s most influential dealers, will receive $1.1 million for “Nature Morte“but says it is worth “at least two, three times”that.

“This raffle would not have succeeded if the name was not Picasso. I tried to propose other artists’ names. But it would not work, because they wanted a name that would appeal to everybody. It has to be Picasso. Picasso is the magic name,“he said.

Other paintings in Nahmad’s vast collection of modern and impressionist art are more valuable and celebrated. The collection is said by Forbes to be worth $3 billion.