Churchill Painting Fetches $1.84 Million at Auction

Art and Literature 09:20 AM - 2021-06-26

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A painting by British Prime Minister Winston Churchill that was gifted to Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis sold for $1.84 million at a Phillips auction in New York.

 

"The Moat, Breccles," a signed 1921 oil landscape, went for within its pre-sale estimate price of between $1.5 million and $2 million. The sale was far less than the $11.6 million netted by another Churchill painting sold by Angelina Jolie at Christie's last March.

 

"Churchill (1874-1965) kept the painting for 40 years before offering it in 1961, four years before his death, to his friend Onassis," Phillips Deputy Chairman Jean-Paul Engelen told AFP.

 

The tycoon was so proud of his gift that he hung it in a place of honor -- behind the bar of his yacht -- alongside works by Vermeer, Gauguin, El Greco and Pissarro. This super yacht, named "Christina" after Onassis's daughter, was a former Canadian Navy frigate, nearly 100 meters long. It had been a part of the Normandy landings before Onassis bought the ship post-war for $34,000.

 

Onassis had it lavishly renovated to the tune of $4 million, making it "one of the most incredible structures that floated," said Engelen.

 

It was a favored gathering spot for the rich and famous, including Elizabeth Taylor, John F. Kennedy, Richard Burton, Grace Kelly, Rainier III of Monaco, and Soprano Maria Callas. When Onassis died in 1975, seven years after his marriage to Jackie Kennedy, the yacht was sold and everything on board placed in storage, until his heirs recently decided to part with the painting.

 

 

 

PUKmedia / Asharq Al-Awsat