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Angelina Jolie might be in the middle of a never-ending divorce battle but at least she never has to worry about money. The actress just sold an oil painting by Winston Churchill for £8m, which is about $11.1 million, per DailyMail. The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom painted the Moroccan landscape in London during WWII after planning the defeat of Nazi Germany with US President Franklin Roosevelt. The painting broke the previous record for one of the WWII leader‘s artworks. Read all about the almost priceless piece.
The painting is called ‘Tower of the Koutoubia Mosque’ and was sold at the London auction house “Christie’s.” It was completed after the 1943 Casablanca Conference, where Churchill and Roosevelt planned the defeat of Nazi Germany. Churchill later gifted the painting to Roosevelt after they visited Marrakech. Roosevelt’s son sold the painting after his death in 1945 and it had several owners before Jolie and her ex-husband Brad Pitt purchased it in 2011. The couple separated in 2016 and were declared legally divorced in 2019 but they still seem to be knee-deep in divorce proceedings. With speculation that their extensive art collection is included in the mess, per DailyMail.
At the auction, Nick Orchard, Head of Modern British Art at Christie’s explained, “Towers of the Koutoubia Mosque was created following the Casablanca Conference where it was agreed by the Allied forces that only complete surrender by the Axis powers would be acceptable. It is the only work that Churchill painted during the war, perhaps encouraged by the recent progress made by the Allies in what he considered to be one of the most beautiful countries he had encountered. Tower of the Koutoubia Mosque is therefore arguably the best painting by Winston Churchill due to the significance of the subject matter to him, and the fact that it highlights the importance of the friendship between the two leaders.”