Angelina Jolie to auction off rare wartime painting by Winston Churchill

Hollywood actor Angelina Jolie will auction off a painting by former UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill that he gifted to US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt shortly after the two planned how to topple Nazi Germany. The auction house Christie’s announced the news on Monday. The painting is expected to fetch up to £2.5 million ($3.4 million) in an auction. Winston Churchill painted "Tower of the Koutoubia Mosque" in Marrakech, Morocco, after attending the Casablanca Conference in January 1943, during which he and US President Roosevelt formulated the next stage of their strategy to defeat Nazi Germany.

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Angelina Jolie prepares to sell Winston Churchill's painting

Credit: Kristle Wigglesworth/AP Photo

As reported by AP News, the image of the 12th-century mosque in Marrakech at sunset, with the Atlas Mountains in the background, is the only painting that Britain’s World War II leader completed during the 1939-45 World War II conflict. The two leaders visited Marrakech after the conference so that Churchill could show Franklin Roosevelt the city’s beauty. The painting was made after the two leaders agreed to only accept an "unconditional surrender" from the Axis powers, a strategically significant statement of intent from the two wartime figures. 

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In a statement to AP News, Nick Orchard, head of Christie’s modern British art department said: "Roosevelt was blown away by it (the painting) and thought it was incredible. He loved the dry air, the light, the sun and the way it played on the landscapes,” he said. “And that’s absolutely visible here in this painting. You can see the long shadows and the turning purple of the mountains and the deepening of the sky — classic sunset time." He said Churchill captured the view in the “wonderful, evocative painting” and gave it to Roosevelt as a memento of the trip. Churchill was a keen amateur artist who completed some 500 paintings after taking up painting in his 40s. Orchard said that “the light in Morocco and over Marrakech was something that Churchill was passionate about” and painted again and again.

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The painting was sold by Roosevelt’s son after the president’s death in 1945 and had several owners before Jolie and her former partner Brad Pitt bought it in 2011. The couple separated in 2016 and have spent years entangled in divorce proceedings, amidst speculation about the division of their extensive art collection. The couple 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 is being sold by the Jolie Family Collection, as part of Christie’s March 1 modern British art auction in London. Nick Orchard stated that the auction house was hopeful it could set a new record for a Churchill work. “The record price at auction for Churchill is about 1.8 million (pounds) for a painting that, in my view, is not as important as this,” he said. “And I think this is probably his most important work.” Besides owning a painting by the late British PM, Angelina Jolie also has two tattoos inspired by Churchill.

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