Winston Churchill painting sells for record $2.82M

LONDON, Dec. 18 (UPI) -- A painting by former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill sold for a record $2.82 million at auction Wednesday, about than triple what it was expected to fetch.

Officials at Sotheby's auction house in London originally expected the landscape painting, The Goldfish Pool at Chartwell, to sell for between $626,000 and just shy of $1 million.

The most a Churchill painting had previously fetched was nearly $1.2 million in 2006.

Wednesday's sale was part of a larger auction of select personal possessions of Mary Soames, the last-surviving daughter of Churchill. Soames died in June.

The auction, which included 15 paintings, furnishings and other works of art, brought in a total $24.3 million.

"The genuine enthusiasm from all those who participated in and visited the sale has been a moving celebration both of Mary Soames and of her father's central place in 20th-century history," said Frances Christie, head of the modern and post-war British art department at Sotheby's. "As the 50th year since Sir Winston Churchill's death approaches, it was a huge honor to have been entrusted with this sale, and to see such appreciation for his skill as a painter."

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Winston Churchill painting sells for record $2.82M