A painting by Sir Winston Chuchill has sold for more than £1.3million a century after it was first created.
The oil landscape, entitled 'The Moat, Breccles', was created by the wartime leader in 1921 before it was gifted to the Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis in 1961 to mark their growing friendship.
The painting, which illustrates a Norfolk wooded glen, proudly hung in the saloon of Onassis' yacht, the Christina, which Churchill and his wife Clementine visited numerous times.
However in 1975, following Onassis' death, the yacht was sold by the family and the the oil painting, which is signed 'WSC', went into storage, where it has remained for four decades.
Now, a century after it was created, the family has sold it with auctioneers Phillips, of New York, where it fetched £1.32m ($1,845,000).
The painting, entitled 'The Moat, Breccles', was created by Sir Winston Churchill in 1921. It has now sold for £1.32m ($1,845,000) with auctioneers Phillips, of New York
Sir Winston mentioned the painting in his essay 'Painting as a Pastime' published in The Strand Magazine in December 1921
Sir Winston, who mentioned the painting in his essay 'Painting as a Pastime' published in The Strand Magazine in December 1921, used painting as a helpful tool for battling his bouts of depression triggered by the disastrous Gallipoli campaign in the First World War in 1915.
He started off doing watercolours and then turned his attention to producing oil works, but was initially reluctant to part with them because he doubted their quality.
Jean-Paul Engelen, deputy chairman of Phillips, said: 'Two of the most influential figures of the 20th century, Churchill and Onassis formed a remarkable friendship, which Churchill sought to honour by gifting a work that he treasured in his own private collection for forty years.
'Churchill must have thought 'what do you give the world's richest man who has everything' and this was his answer.
'He was clearly proud of this painting as it featured in his 1921 The Strand article.
'Long thought to have been lost, The Moat, Breccles was in fact aboard the Christina until it was sold by the family following Onassis' death and put into storage.
'The Onassis Family have chosen to sell it a century after its creation and 50 years after it was generously gifted by the statesman to the family.'
Sir Winston's son, Randolph, introduced him to Onassis at a dinner in La Pausa, France, in January 1956.
The introduction sparked a friendship that prompted Onassis to invite the wartime
