An oil painting by Sir Winston Churchill, titled Marrakech (circa 1935), will be auctioned at Heffel Auction House in Toronto on November 19. The 24 x 20-inch canvas, estimated between $400,000 and $600,000 CAD (between 2,6 and 3.9 million Moroccan dirhams), was originally gifted by Churchill to his wife, Lady Clementine, who later donated it to the Hudson's Bay Company in 1956. Featured in several reference works, including Churchill: His Paintings by David Coombs, the piece reflects the former British Prime Minister's deep affection for Morocco, where he painted several landscapes during his visits. The artwork, depicting three women standing beside Marrakech's medina walls and palm trees, will be on preview at Heffel Toronto ahead of the sale. For the record, Churchill's Morocco-inspired paintings have fetched record-breaking prices in recent years. His Tower of the Koutoubia Mosque (1943), once owned by actress Angelina Jolie, sold for $11.5 million at Christie's London in 2021. Completed after the 1943 Anfa Conference in Casablanca and gifted to U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, that painting shows the Marrakech mosque at sunset, a city Churchill once described as «the most beautiful place in the world».
