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THE CHURCHILL ROOM OF THE MUSEUM OF PEACE: A UNIQUE TESTIMONY OF HISTORY

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Naples  ||  | 02 March 2021
Iniziative (EN) - Federazione Anna Lindh Italia - Onlus (EN)

The "Churchill Room" of the Museum of Peace - MAMT represents a unique testimony of history that attracts visitors, even remotely, from all over the world.
Within these walls, the great statesman laid the foundations for the historic speech on the "United States of Europe" and many "European" visitors reread the text next to the historic desk.
Among objects, artifacts, videos, rare documents and so on, there are also high-definition reproductions of the main paintings by Winston Churchill.
Among these the latest recently sold at auction: the view of Marrakech made by the former British premier in January 1943, until now part of the art collection of Angelina Jolie who received it as a gift in 2011 from her ex-husband Brad Pitt .
"The tower of the Koutoubia mosque" - whose high definition image can be enjoyed in the Museum, along with other paintings by the statesman such as the famous view of the Pompeii excavations - was sold for 7 million pounds in London by the auction house Christie's.
President Capasso retraces the history of the painting: "Churchill, in love with Marrocco, gave 'The tower of the Koutoubia mosque' to the US president, his ally, Franklin D. Roosevelt, during the Second World War. Churchill visited Morocco for the first time in 1935 and fell in love with it for the quality of the light he found there. The work, which bears the initials W.S.C, was donated by Churchill to Roosevelt after the Casablanca conference of 1943, in which they agreed on the strategy to defeat Nazi Germany, and on the eve of the Neapolitan stay at the Grand Hotel de Londres. After ten days at the summit, the British leader invited his North American counterpart to accompany him to visit one of his favorite places, stating: 'You can't go as far as North Africa without seeing Marrakech [...]. I have to be with you when you see the sunset over the Atlas Mountains, "the British Prime Minister told the US president. After five hours of travel, the two leaders arrived in the Moroccan city and Roosevelt was so fascinated by that sunset that the premier did not hesitate to extend his stay in Marrakech to immortalize the scene and offer it as a souvenir to the American president. Sir Winston Churchill had started painting Moroccan scenes after being encouraged to visit the country by his painting master, Sir John Lavery. On his first visit in 1935, he felt that the light and the landscape were unrivaled, creating some 45 paintings of the country. "The tower of the Koutoubia mosque" stands out as the only painting created between 1939 and 1945. When Roosevelt died the painting was inherited by his son and has since passed through the hands of various owners until 2011, when it was acquired. by Brad Pitt ”.