LONDON — A painting first owned by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and now being sold by the actress Angelina Jolie, elevated the art of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill to a new price league at auction at Christie’s on Monday. The work, “Tower of the Koutoubia Mosque” (1943), sold for 8.3 million pounds, or about $11.5 million, with fees — a record for an artwork by Churchill, who was a keen amateur painter. Churchill persuaded Roosevelt to stay on an extra day in North Africa. Marrakesh was a much-loved subject for paintings by Churchill. “You cannot come all this way to North Africa without seeing Marrakesh,” Churchill told the president, according to the Christie’s catalog.

Source: International New York Times March 02, 2021 19:05 UTC