Angelina Jolie is selling a multimillion-dollar Winston Churchill painting that was given to her by Brad Pitt

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Angelina Jolie is selling a multimillion-dollar Winston Churchill painting that was given to her by Brad Pitt
Brad Pitt originally gifted Angelina Jolie the Winston Churchill painting in 2011.Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic/Carl Mydans/The LIFE Picture Collection via Getty Images
  • In 2011, Brad Pitt gifted Angelina Jolie the only wartime painting Winston Churchill created.
  • Now, Jolie is selling the painting and is expcted to receive up to $3.4 million.
  • "Tower of the Koutoubia Mosque" was created in Morocco in 1943 after the Casablanca Conference.
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Angelina Jolie is selling the only painting that Winston Churchill created during WWII, with the painting expected to go for up to $3.4 million.

The painting was gifted to her by her then-husband Brad Pitt in 2011 after he purchased it from antique dealer M.S. Rau, CNN reported.

Churchill created the "Tower of the Koutoubia Mosque" in Marrakech, Morocco, in 1943 after he attended the Casablanca Conference. During this summit, he and then-US President Franklin D. Roosevelt discussed strategies on how to defeat Nazi Germany. Churchill then gifted the painting to Roosevelt.

The estimated price range is from $2 million to $3.4 million, and it is due to go on sale on March 1.

Angelina Jolie is selling a multimillion-dollar Winston Churchill painting that was given to her by Brad Pitt
Oil on canvas painting by Sir Winston Churchill 'Tower of the Koutoubia Mosque' is displayed at Christie's auction rooms in London, Friday, Jan. 29, 2021.AP Photo / Kirsty Wigglesworth

Nick Orchard, head of modern British art at auction house Christie's said in a statement: "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."

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Orchard said that the painting is "arguably the best painting by Winston Churchill," and highlights the friendship between Churchill and Roosevelt.

"The gifting of the work to Roosevelt underlines the fact that Churchill held the American President in such high regard and points to their joint efforts in guiding the Allied powers to the outcome of the Second World War."

Churchill is well-known for his hobby of painting, and created over 500 pictures of various subjects and landscapes. This was touched upon in Netflix's "The Crown," with John Lithgow playing Churchill. The series also highlighted the importance of a painting of Churchill himself - Graham Sutherland's portrait of the Prime Minister. It is reported that Lady Spencer-Churchill destroyed this painting as Churchill himself did not like it.

Jolie and Pitt were together for over 15 years after Pitt divorced Jennifer Aniston. Jolie and Pitt married in 2014 but two years after that in 2016, Jolie filed for divorce from Pitt citing irreconcilable differences. Jolie and Pitt have six children together, and in a recent interview Jolie said she divorced Pitt for "the wellbeing of my family."

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