The fact that Winston Churchill’s painting that Angelina Jolie sells at auction for millions was bought by her by Brad Pitt as a gift, according to known sources of the sale on Page Six.
Pitt, 57, and Jolie, 45, remain embroiled in an interminable battle for divorce after announcing their separation in 2016. Reports have not said why Jolie is downloading the artwork.
Churchill’s 1943 painting was last purchased from New Orleans antiques dealer MS Rau for $ 2.95 million in 2011 by an unnamed buyer and ended up in the Jolie Family collection. According to sources, on Page Six, the buyer at the time was an avid art collector Pitt, who gave it to Jolie.
Sources also told us that Pitt’s role in Quentin Tarantino’s 2009 World War II drama, “Inglourious Basterds,” helped inspire his interest in Churchill’s play. The Hollywood couple reportedly once visited the Churchill War Rooms together in the UK on a private tour.
The painting, “The Koutoubia Tower Mosque,” was created by Churchill for President Franklin D. Roosevelt and is estimated to raise up to $ 3.4 million through Christie’s.
Before Pitt bought it, the painting was passed from Roosevelt to his son Elliott, who sold it in 1950 to an art collector in Nebraska. It was later sold to a film producer, Norman G. Hickman, who starred in a 1964 Churchill-themed film, “The Finest Hours”. The painting was left to Hickman’s relatives after his death, and ended up in a closet for 15 years until it was sold by Rau.
Pitt and Jolie’s representatives did not comment immediately.