Winston Churchill "Superyacht" Painting To Auction In New York

"The Moat, Breccles," a signed 1921 oil landscape by Winston Churchill, is estimated by Phillips at $1.5 million to $2 million, far from the $11.6 million netted by another painting from the wartime British prime minister sold by Angelina Jolie at Christie's last March.

A piece of art weaving together one of the great statesmen of the 20th century, an icon of the jet set and the world's first "super yacht" will go under the hammer at New York auction house Phillips on June 23. "The Moat, Breccles," a signed 1921 oil landscape by Winston Churchill, is estimated by Phillips at $1.5 million to $2 million, far from the $11.6 million netted by another painting from the wartime British prime minister sold by Angelina Jolie at Christie's last March. But even if it doesn't shatter records, this landscape -- which Churchill mentioned in a December 1921 essay titled "Painting as a Pastime" -- could appeal to both history and celebrity buffs. Churchill kept the painting for 40 years before offering it in 1961, four years before his death, to his friend the Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis, Phillips Deputy Chairman Jean-Paul Engelen told AFP.