A painting of Winston Churchill that belonged to Angelina Jolie sold for £8.2 million

A painting by Winston Churchill (Woodstock, 1874 - London, 1965) has been sold at Christie’ s for the sum of £8.2 million.

It is The Tower of the Koutoubia Mosque, the only painting that the British prime minister had executed during World War II and which he made in Marrakesh, Morocco, in the aftermath of the Casablanca Conference of Jan. 14-24, 1943, in which the Allies’ European strategy against the Nazis was planned. Churchill invited Theodore Roosevelt to join him on the trip to Marrakech the day after the conference ended, with the purpose of sharing with the American president the views of the city and the light at sunset, which he so adored. Churchill therefore decided to execute a painting as a memento of their visit.

“This act was seen not only as an indication of their friendship, but of the special relationship between the United Kingdom and the United States,” Christie’s pointed out. Sir Winston Churchill began painting scenes of Morocco after being encouraged to visit the country by his painting master, Sir John Lavery. On his first visit in 1935, he felt the light and landscape were unrivaled, creating some 45 paintings of the country. The Tower of the Koutoubia Mosque is the only painting that Churchill painted between 1939 and 1945.

The painting was purchased by actress Angelina Jolie in 2011 along with her then-husband, fellow artist Brad Pitt, and, after their divorce, became part of the Jolie Family Collection.

The initial estimate at the auction held in London was £1.5 million, but several mark-ups led to the canvas being hammered out at 7 million, which, when commissions are calculated, rises to 8.2 million. Two other Churchill paintings were sold at the auction for a combined total of 9.43 million pounds.

Pictured: the work sold

A painting of Winston Churchill that belonged to Angelina Jolie sold for £8.2 million

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