Her son had given her the ticket as a gift for Christmas. “Maybe it was the best decision of my life," he said.
ADVERTISEMENTAn Italian won a Pablo Picasso oil painting worth €1 million after buying a €100 charity lottery ticket.
Claudia Borgogno, an accountant, summed up her amazement in one word: “Incredible".
“I have never won anything before," said the 58-year-old from Ventimiglia, northern Italy, adding that she likes Picasso and the prospect of being able to hang one of his paintings on her wall was still sinking in.
Her son Lorenzo Naso had gifted her the ticket for Christmas.
“It was maybe the best decision of my life," he asserted. “When I arrived and I told her she had won she was like, ‘Please don’t joke'. She is not going to sleep tonight.”
Naso, an analyst for the European Union, lives in Paris but has been staying with his mother in Italy during the coronavirus lockdown.
The ticket was picked out in an electronic draw at the auction house Christie’s in Paris on Wednesday, May 20.
The charity lottery sold over 50,000 tickets around the world - mostly in France, US, Switzerland and Italy.
Proceeds are going to provide water for villagers in Madagascar and Cameroon.
The painting, which is called Nature Mort, shows a newspaper and a glass of absinthe on a wood table.
Picasso painted it in 1921, and it comes from the collection of Monegasque billionaire David Nahmad, which includes around 300 works of the Spanish artist.