Charity to raffle a Picasso for 100 euros ($138)

PARIS — 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 ($138) in an unusually affordable charity raffle Wednesday.

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 International Association for the Safeguard of Tyr owns the Picasso, and hopes to raise 5 million euros ($6.9 million) to protect the ancient Lebanese city of Tyr, 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.”