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Churchill painting owned by Angelina Jolie sells for $11.5M

Churchill painting owned by Angelina Jolie sells for $11.5M

She and Brad Pitt bought the painting in 2011.
02 Mar, 2021

A Moroccan landscape painted by Winston Churchill and owned by Angelina Jolie sold at auction on Monday for more than $11.5 million, smashing the previous record for a work by Britain’s World War II leader.

“Tower of the Koutoubia Mosque” sold at Christie’s in London for 8,285,000 pounds ($11,590,715). The pre-sale estimate was 1.5 million pounds to 2.5 million pounds, and the previous record price for a Churchill painting was just under 1.8 million pounds.

The image of the 12th-century mosque in Marrakech at sunset, with the Atlas Mountains in the background, is a piece of both political and Hollywood history.

The only painting that Britain’s wartime prime minister completed during the 1939-45 conflict, it was completed after the January 1943 Casablanca Conference, where Churchill and U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt planned the defeat of Nazi Germany.

Photo:AP
Photo:AP

The two leaders visited Marrakech after the conference so that Churchill could show Roosevelt the city’s beauty. Churchill gave the painting to Roosevelt as a memento of the trip.

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 separated in 2016 and have spent years enmeshed in divorce proceedings, amid speculation about the division of their extensive art collection.

They were declared divorced in 2019 after their lawyers asked for a bifurcated judgment, meaning that two married people can be declared single while other issues, including finances and child custody, remain.

The painting was sold by the Jolie Family Collection. The buyer wasn’t immediately identified.

Comments

Roma Mar 02, 2021 10:46am
Imran Khan too can paint something. Rich overseas Pakistanis can buy it for 10 Million dollars.
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South Asian Mar 02, 2021 11:11am
Churchill's actions during the Bengal famine paint him as a villain.
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Shahbaz Ahmed Tarar Mar 02, 2021 11:57am
@Roma What about modi??
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Shaun Mar 02, 2021 03:03pm
@ Shahbaz Ahmed Tarar Pakistan needs the money more than India.
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Dr. Salaria, Aamir Ahmad Mar 02, 2021 03:03pm
No doubt, Winston Churchill was a great leader and elected Prime Minister of England during yesteryears in general and WW II in particular.
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Chrís Dăn Mar 02, 2021 06:04pm
@South Asian not actually. These are very touching.
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well-wisher Mar 02, 2021 07:26pm
Well done Jollie. Continue the good work because only that counts in the end.
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NK Mar 02, 2021 08:32pm
@Roma Imran wears mostly overall one color but I think Modi will be a better painter because he is always in colors of white, lemon, saffron and of course red
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NK Mar 02, 2021 08:34pm
@Shaun You may have not seen your poverty. Go around and see how many people are homeless in your country that we do not. Do not be in fools paradise,
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M. Saeed Mar 03, 2021 12:16am
@Shahbaz Ahmed Tarar, Modi made cup of tea can sell for $ 35 million.
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Venkat Mar 03, 2021 06:34am
@Shaun to repay loans.
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