Billionaire art collector David Nahmad isn’t sure why he bought the charming oil painting. He owns about 300 Picasso paintings. But soon someone will join his Picasso club. His Nature Morte will be raffled off for charity this month.
Nahmad is one of the art world’s leading dealers. He will receive $1.1 million for Nature Morte. But he says it is worth “at least two, three times” that. Nahmad says the prospect of parting with Nature Morte has made him more appreciative of the small still life, which shows a newspaper and a glass on a wood table.
The raffle draw is being held March 30. Organizers Péri Cochin, a television producer, and Arabelle Reille, an art historian, aim to sell 200,000 $113 tickets. They want to raise millions to provide water for villagers in Cameroon, Madagascar, and Morocco.
Reille and Cochin approached Nahmad about giving up a Picasso. At first, Nahmad says, “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.”
The two are paying Nahmad for the painting instead of pushing for a free donation. In doing so, they hope to encourage other collectors to part with Picassos for future charity raffles.
Nahmad may be exaggerating when he says his artworks are as dear to him as children. But parting with them is certainly difficult. He describes his huge collection as “a living thing.”
“You learn every day,” he says. “A statement of a bank, it is so boring. Each time you buy a painting, you want to know more.”
Nahmad believes that Picasso would have liked to know his work was raffled to the public.
“Picasso was very generous. He gave paintings to his driver, his tailor,” Nahmad says. “He wanted his art to be collected by all kinds of people, not only by the super-rich.”
(David Nahmad poses in front of a colorful work by French-born American artist Arman, in Nahmad’s home in Monaco. AP Photo/John Leicester)
