Actress Angelina Jolie has sold a painting painted by Winston Churchill, the former Prime Minister of Great Britain. The painting was painted in 1943 after the meeting of the anti-Hitler coalition in Casablanca and presented to US President Franklin Roosevelt.
The work “The Minaret of the Al-Qutubiya Mosque” was sold for a record amount for Churchill’s works – $11.5 million (£8.28 million). This is reported on the website of the auction house Christie’s. Initially, the cost of the canvas was estimated at $ 2-3.4 million.
The painting was painted in 1943 and was the only painting painted by a politician during the Second World War. Churchill wrote it after a meeting with then US President Franklin Roosevelt in Casablanca, where the leaders of the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition were negotiating. In the same year, he presented the painting to Roosevelt, and after that it was inherited by his son Elliot. Jolie’s family bought the painting in 2011. Brad Pitt presented it as a gift for his wife, Angelina Jolie. In 2016, the couple separated after two years of marriage.
Churchill began his artistic activity in adulthood, at about 40 years old, but managed to write more than 500 works. At the auction held on March 1, his other works were sold: paintings “The Scene in Marrakech” ($2.6 million, £1.9 million) and “St. Paul’s Cemetery” ($1.5 million, £1.1 million). The purchase amount also exceeds the amount of the initial estimate by almost three times.
The author of the publication is Editor-in-Chief Bella Kortel
