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Winston Churchill’s painting “The Tower of the Koutoubia Mosque” sold for nearly £ 8.3 million, or nearly NOK 100 million, at Christie’s art auction in London on Monday night.
It was nearly four times the appraisal price and a new record for an image measured by the former prime minister. The previous sales record for a Churchill film was 1.8 million pounds, writes Sky News.
It is not known who bought the image, but the seller was the American director and shooter Angelina Jolie.
Gift for Roosevelt
The subject of the image is the Marrakech mosque at sunset, with the Atlas Mountains in the background. This area was one of Churchill’s favorite motifs.
– Churchill first visited Morocco in 1935 and fell in love with the light here. He thought the paintings he did in this area were among the best, Nick Orchard at Christie’s tells CNN.
The image was the only one that ended during WWII, according to Sky. Churchill painted it after the Casablanca Conference with US President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1943.
There they put the plans that led to the downfall of Nazi Germany.
Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill during the 1943 Casablanca Conference.
Photo: Ap
After the summit, Churchill Roosevelt was persuaded to stay one more day. He thought that they couldn’t be in Morocco without watching the sun set over the Atlas Mountains together.
Churchill painted the picture after Roosevelt’s departure and then gave it to the president as a souvenir.
Gift of love
Roosevelt’s son is said to have sold the painting after the war. The painting even ended with a family in New Orleans. It remained in a closet for five decades, before contacting art dealer Bill Rau.
– The painting shows the sparkle in the eyes that the two world leaders shared as they gazed at the majestic scenery of Marrakech as the sun set. And knowing that Churchill gave it to Roosevelt as a gift after their time together excites me, Rau told CNN.
Brad Pitt bought the image of Churchill as a gift from Angelina Jolie in 2011. Now he sold it to an unknown buyer.
Photo: Mario Anzuoni / Reuters
The buyer of the image was Brad Pitt, who gifted it to Angelina Jolie in 2011, before they got married. When the couple separated, the painting became part of the Jolie Family Collection, before being sold at auction this week.
Churchill began painting when he was in his 40s and did more than 500 works before he died. In addition to the image that sold for a record sum, the image “Scene in Marrakech” and “St. Paul’s Churchyard” sold at auction.
Churchill painted several pictures of the surroundings of Marrakech. This image, “Scene in Marrakech”, also went under the hammer at Christie’s on Monday night.
Photo: Frank Augstein / AP
This was for almost 1.9 million pounds and 1.1 million pounds. Both underwent more than three gongar price evaluations.
