One of the most famous paintings by the former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill (1874-1965) was auctioned Monday in London for 7 million pounds sterling (8.1 million euros) by the auction house Christie's.
The tower of the Koutoubia mosque,
(1943) in Marrakech, a painting painted on the occasion of an official visit to Morocco during World War II, thus pulverized the estimates (from 1.7 to 2.8 million euros ).
Including costs, the amount of the sale amounts to 8.285 million pounds (nearly 9.6 million euros).
The oil on canvas offered for sale by American actress Angelina Jolie is considered "
to be Sir Winston Churchill's most important painting
" because of its "
interweaving in the history of the twentieth century,
" said the historian of British art Barry Phipps in the catalog.
This simple and unadorned landscape represents the minaret, symbol of power of the Almohad dynasty (12th century), entwined by the ramparts of the ancient city and leaning against the snow-capped mountains.
Churchill gave it to Roosevelt at the time.
Then sold by one of Roosevelt's sons in the 1950s, the painting changed hands several times, before landing in 2011 in the collection of Hollywood couple Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt.
The Conservative leader started painting late, when he was 40 years old.
Whoever liked to flee political storms and the grayness of London had discovered the light of the ocher city of Marrakech in the Thirties, at the time of the French protectorate, and made a total of six trips there in 23 years.
A period press photograph shows Roosevelt and Churchill admiring together, from the Taylor villa, the sunset over the panorama that will inspire the painting.
At the same sale, two other paintings by Churchill took off the auction: a landscape of Marrakech sold for 1.55 million pounds (1.8 million euros) - 1.8 million pounds with costs, or 2.18 million euros - while it was estimated between 300,000 and 500,000 pounds and a view of St. Paul's Cathedral in London estimated between 200,000 and 300,000 pounds, sold for 880,000 pounds (1.2 million euros ).