Angelina Jolie sells Churchill painting for Rs1.54b

LONDON: A painting by former British prime minister Sir Winston Churchill, which was owned by Angelina Jolie, has sold for £7 million (Rs1.54 billion) at auction in London, foreign media reported.

The sale price was almost four times the top pre-sale estimate and beat the previous record for a Churchill painting, which was just under £1.8m.

The Tower Of The Koutoubia Mosque, painted in Marrakesh during World War Two, was sold to an anonymous buyer.

A Christie's spokesperson called it "Churchill's most important work".

"Aside from its distinguished provenance, it is the only landscape he made during the war," the spokesperson added.

Churchill, a keen artist, took inspiration from the Moroccan city and painted The Tower Of The Koutoubia Mosque oil work following the Casablanca Conference in 1943.

He went on to give the finished piece to fellow wartime leader, US president Franklin Roosevelt.