LONDON – A Moroccan landscape painted by Winston Churchill and owned by Angelina Jolie was sold at auction on Monday for more than $ 11.5 million, shattering the previous record for a work by Britain’s World War II leader has.
“Tower of the Koutoubia Mosque” was sold at Christie’s in London for £ 8,285,000 ($ 11,590,715). The pre-sale estimate was £ 1.5m to £ 2.5m, and the previous record price for a Churchill painting was just under £ 1.8m.
The image of the 12th-century mosque in Marrakech with sunset, with the Atlas Mountains in the background, is a piece of politics as well as Hollywood history.
The only painting completed by the British Prime Minister during the 1939-45 conflict was completed after the Casablanca Conference in January 1943, where Churchill and US President Franklin D. Roosevelt planned the defeat of Nazi Germany. .
The two leaders visited Marrakech after the conference so that Churchill Roosevelt could show the city’s beauty. Churchill gave the painting to Roosevelt as a reminder of the journey.
The painting was sold by Roosevelt’s son after the president’s death in 1945 and had several owners before Jolie and partner Brad Pitt bought it in 2011.
The couple divorced in 2016 and have been involved in divorce proceedings for years amid speculation about the division of their extensive art collection.
They were declared divorced in 2019 after their lawyers asked for a double verdict, meaning two married people can be declared unmarried, while other issues, including finances and child custody, remain.
The painting was sold by the Jolie Family Collection. The buyer was not immediately identified.