Sir Winston Spencer Churchill, Marrakech, oil on canvas, estimate: £300,000-500,000. © Sotheby's Images

LONDON.-Sir Winston Spencer Churchill (1874-1965) was one of the great statesmen of the 20th Century but it is his paintings that have put him in the spotlight over the last year or so. In July of this year Sotheby’s sold a view of his home, Chartwell Landscape with Sheep, for £1 million – a new auction record for a work by him (by nearly twice the previous record) – while in December last year, a Moroccan scene entitled View of Tinherir that Churchill had gifted to General George C. Marshall, fetched £612,800, again at a Sotheby’s auction.
Now, on Thursday, December 13, 2007, Sotheby’s is delighted to announce that it will be offering Churchill’s Marrakech as a highlight of its forthcoming sale of 20th Century British Art in London. Marrakech is comparable to View of Tinherir but arguably superior in both composition and provenance. The painting has superlative provenance; it was a gift from Churchill to the former US President, Harry S. Truman, in 1951 and has remained with the Truman family ever since. The work is being sold by the former President’s daughter, Margaret Truman Daniel, who actually hand-carried the painting from Downing Street, London to the US on behalf of her father.
Lire la suite http://www.artdaily.com/section/news/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new=22151