A historic painting that Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt purchased during their marriage is relied upon to get between $2.1 million to $3.4 million at auction one month from now.
Christie’s will sell the landscape, painted by then British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, as part of a modern British art event on March 1. Amateur painter Churchill gave the piece, called Tower of the Koutoubia Mosque, to U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt as a souvenir of their time together going to the Casablanca Conference, at that point visiting close by Marrakech, in January 1943. It was there that the two world leaders talked about their plan to defeat the Nazis in World War II. Churchill painted an expected 500 paintings, yet this is just a single he did during the war years.
After Roosevelt died in 1945, the painting was sold by the president’s son and changed hands a few times before Pitt and Jolie scooped it up in 2011. The A-listers split in 2016, and the work is presently important for the Jolie Family Collection, which is offering it.
Nick Orchard, who oversees modern British art at Christie’s, said the piece is “probably [Churchill’s] most important work.” And that is prior to including the Brangelina factor.
Since Pitt and Jolie’s breakup in 2016, they’ve struggled in court over the division of their resources, which incorporate some mind-boggling works of art. The two were formally announced single again in 2019, yet they keep on working through the subtleties of their divorce.
In an interview published Monday, Jolie talked with British Vogue about how the previous few years have been “pretty hard” for her.
“I’ve been focusing on healing our family,” Jolie said. “It’s slowly coming back, like the ice melting and the blood returning to my body.”
For the time being, she and the six children she shares to Pitt — twins Knox and Vivienne, 12; Shiloh, 14; Zahara, 15; Pax, 16; and 19-year-old Maddox — are stayed in a Los Angeles estate that additionally has a deep history; It once belonged to the late celebrated film director Cecil B. DeMille.
“I wanted it to be close to their dad, who is only five minutes away,” Jolie said of the home. “I felt a little pressure moving in. Like I had snuck into where DeMille and [Charlie] Chaplin would hang out. I love most that there is no entertainment room, but lots of pathways and places to walk and think. I feel very fortunate we have that at this time.”
The director and Oscar-winning actress offered a brief look into what pandemic life has been similar to for the family.
“We went into it having just gotten out of the hospital with Zahara [who underwent surgery last year], and we were so happy she was OK that we entered lockdown in a different state of mind,” Jolie said. “But, you know, there are also these other markers of life: Pax going into his senior year, but not being able to enjoy all that it is to be a senior; Zahara finally getting her driving license, but she’s taking the test with the driver wrapped in the full outfit with the masks. It’s not how you imagine these moments. But birthdays go on, and I think that for many people, it’s made us all feel very human together. There’s something beautiful about that.”