Last painting by Churchill may fetch £80,000 at auction
The painting was given to Sergeant Edmund Murray, who served Churchill as a bodyguard for the last 15 years of his life.
London: The last painting created by former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill is expected to fetch 80,000 pounds in an auction in the UK.
Churchill's final work titled, 'The Goldfish Pool At Chartwell' was painted shortly before his death in 1965. It depicts his "most special place in the world" - the goldfish pond at his Chartwell home in the UK.
The painting was given to Sergeant Edmund Murray, who served Churchill as a bodyguard for the last 15 years of the former prime minister's life and helped the politician prepare his easel and brushes.
"This was his last ever picture. But even more than that, it was the most special place in the world for Churchill, his home in Kent. It looks out on to the most incredible landscape," Frances Christie from Sotheby's auction house told The Telegraph. "It was where he always longed to return to and was most relaxed," Christie said.
Ill health forced Churchill to paint less in the years before his death in 1965 and the creation of this work was the last occasion Sergeant Murray set up his easel and brushes for him. The painting, which is expected to fetch up to 80,000 pounds, has been cherished ever since by the bodyguard's family, the auction house said.
The auction will take place on November 21.