Follow Christiane on social media:
What time is Amanpour on CNN?
Check showtimes to see when Amanpour is on CNN where you are. Or watch online.
Picasso’s grandson raffles off painting, at 100 euros a ticket, to save ancient city
By Mick Krever and Claire Calzonetti, CNN
Pablo Picasso’s grandson is raffling off a million-dollar painting for the cost of a 100 euro raffle ticket – and it’s all to save an ancient Phoenician city in Lebanon.
50,000 raffle tickets are up grabs for a chance to win “The Man with the Opera Hat,” a cubist work nearly 100 years old. All proceeds will go to finance two arts and cultural projects in the UNESCO World Heritage city.
CNN’s Christiane Amanpour spoke with Olivier Picasso – the painter’s grandson and the public face of the initiative – sitting in front of the small canvas.
“It's something that normally you find in a museum,” Picasso said. Sitting next to it, in person, not seeing it in a book, is a whole different ballgame, he said.
“When you are in contact with something that my grandfather, that Picasso, touched, it's really a different feeling.”
If the price of the auction tickets is unusual, so is the cause: The rescue of Tyre, a city devastated by decades of military conflict, including Lebanon’s 15-year-long civil war. More recently, it has seen an influx of refugees from neighboring Syria.
“You know, I'm French; I'm not primarily concerned by Lebanon or Tyre,” Picasso said. “But I understood the importance of this city.”
“It's always difficult to maintain an old, an ancient city,” he said – not only because of decaying architecture, but because Tyre is still active and lived in.
The cause is important not only to maintain the physical structures, but also “to preserve the traditions.”
The idea, Picasso explained, came from his friend, who was fed up with “boring” charity dinners – it was her who approached him about auctioning one of his grandfather’s works.
Olivier was too young to have met his grandfather, but with a name like “Picasso” the legacy is hard to escape.
“He was part of the family … part of my life, as a child, with paintings on the walls and drawings and photos.”
Because he never knew his grandfather, he explored his own truth over years, “like discovering that he had many women and discovering that he was supposed to be a Communist – but also a billionaire, that he was someone old and not cherishing his friends and family.”
One of those many women was Olivier’s own grandmother, Marie-Therese Walter.
Picasso’s portrait of Walter, "Le Reve,” set a record when it was sold earlier this year for $155 million.
Walter was 17 when she met Picasso, then 46, at the Galeries Lafayette in Paris.
“He told her, ‘Mademoiselle, I would like to make your portrait,’” Oliver said. “She said, "Mmm, you and I, we're going to make great things together.’”
“When he died, I realized later that my grandmother has lost a link to the exceptional life; she was now back to ordinary daily life. And four years later, she killed herself.”
Were any of Picasso’s artistic talents passed down to his grandson, Amanpour asked.
“I've tried, but it's easy to be a banker after a banker,” Oliver said. “But to be a Picasso after Picasso, it's really difficult.”
@camanpour on Twitter
Nice one there! My husband's a Picasso in the making in a little corner in the Lagos State of Nigeria! watch the space! lol
The painting is worth 1million Dollars & the raffle generates 5 million... The Picasso money machine lives on!!!
Only if they manage to sell all 50,000 tickets....
Oh? I think they will! I'm a ready buyer: of the raffle ticket! Not the Picasso! 😉
Interesting that nowhere is it stated what currency the valuation of the painting is in. Hopefully not the currency of the city Tyre 😛
In the video, Christiane asked him how much it's worth & Olivier said "one million Dollars"...
Lame.
Why is CA such a moron? The dumbing down of the American mind continues ...
The lovely man should have walked. She's incapable of discussing art.
Blah.
She does not claim to be an art expert. Her honesty was refreshing. She has a world famous TV show, and the charity got a lot of publicity from this. It was a fun show. Enjoy the moment. Cheers!
Great episode! Very refreshing, indeed! Nice to meet a Picasso descendant and get some personal insights into the great artist: yes, he does look like Picasso! 🙂 That Picasso would be just perfect for my > 20yrs' vacant wall! 😉 Appreciate link to buy a raffle ticket! Thanks!
For the first time cnn posts a positive thing about Lebanon!I hope my post will not be deleted. Nice change!
How can we buy a ticket, please?
detectives privados dos hermanas
https://www.argadetectives.com/detectives-chiclana-de-la-frontera-cadiz.html
Hello! I just would like to give a huge thumbs up for the excellent information you’ve got here on this post. I will be coming back to your blog for far more soon.
http://6dollarmillion.xyz
Imagine getting hundreds of people flooding your inbox on autopilot, This is made thanks to traffic conveyed on autopilot over various “viral tiers”. 100 commissions of up to 900+ dollars DAILY. More details: https://bit.ly/2YfQFcC
https://bit.ly/2YfQFcC
Hey very nice web site!! Guy .. Beautiful .. Wonderful .. I’ll bookmark your website and take the feeds also¡KI’m happy to search out numerous useful info right here within the submit, we’d like develop extra strategies in this regard, thanks for sharing. . . . . . Rent a car kosova
http://yourmatrixcashmachine.com
Do you want get more social network traffic, likes, and retweets? SMM Supreme uses his own panel system to generate social media traffic to any website. Best Quality-Price Ratio on the market with 714928 orders until now. – Facebook Fan Page Likes: $4.50/1000 – Instagram Followers: $0.78/1000 – Youtube Views: $1.62/1000 – Twitter followers: $2.10/1000 – Paypal Deposit – Payeer Deposit – Automatic order processing – 30 minutes to send to customers
https://bit.ly/3iOPatX
Do you want get more social network traffic, likes, subscribers? Our Company provide SMM Services that means (Social Media Marketing) that is directly using social network websites such as Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to promote a website. High Quality Services / Our prices are the cheapest in the market, starting at $0.01 / 24/7 Support / API Support for panel leaders / Best prices
https://bit.ly/2Hnl7vE