A man who paid a fraction of that could make a life-changing amount if the picture of Clemintine Churchill is proved to have been painted by the revered wartime Prime Minister
An amateur art collector who claims he has found a lost painting by Sir Winston Churchill is told it could be worth more than £600,000.
Barry James appears on the BBC1 show Fake Or Fortune tonight (MON) with his intriguing picture. He tells presenter Fiona Bruce and international art dealer Phil Mould that he picked it up for just £140 in an antiques market in Ardingly near Gatwick, three years ago because he liked ‘the colours and composition’.
But it was only later when it took it out of the frame that he found a mysterious inscription on the back which read: “This painting of Mrs Winston Churchill on wall of sunken garden at Hurstmonceux (CORR) Castle, Sussex, by The Right Hon. Winston S Churchill. June 1916.”
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It shows what is thought to be Sir Winston’s wife Clementine perched on a wall reading a book in the pink flowered gardens of the castle. Barry, from West Sussex, hopes the BBC series, returning for its 13th run, can validate it.
In the BBC show, shocked Barry is told that paintings by Churchill – who was British PM from 1940-45 and 1951-55 – can fetch millions of pounds. In 2021 Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie sold one – The Tower Of The Koutoubia Mosque, painted in Marrakesh during WWII – for a record £7million.
And Barry is informed that if his picture is found to be an original then at auction it could make more than £600,000. The TV duo embark on a search to find out if the artist really was war leader Churchill. Records show how he took up painting in 1915 – in water colours to begin with and later in oils – after he had completed his military service during WW1 and narrowly escaped death.
He looked on his new hobby as something that took him away from the stress of his high powered life and it became a source of relaxation. Fiona, 61, delves into a book written by his friend Violet Bonham Carter called Winston Churchill As I Knew Him, in which she mentions that the politician stayed at the castle with his paints and brushes.
The author even writes that he was there as a guest in 1916 – but she mentions August rather than June. Undeterred, Fiona visits the castle to locate the exact spot where Clementine would have sat on the wall in the garden to be painted.
Meanwhile art dealer Phil does some digging to check that it is not stolen – and gets the all clear. A further mystery is uncovered when the artwork is x-rayed and another painting is discovered underneath. Experts believe it looks like a painting of a castle – possibly the very one where Winston and his wife stayed.
This news is not unwelcome as the statesman was well-known for re-using canvases. But some doubt is thrown into the mix when it is discovered that the handwriting on the back is not Churchill’s but that of Conservative politician Colonel Claude Lowther, who bought Herstmonceux and restored it – and invited his friend to stay there in 1916.
Barry, who is married and is a carer with a disabled son, admits: “If the painting is real, I’d probably end up reluctantly selling it, obviously for the family. We have always wanted to go to Niagara Falls. Our son is disabled and I think he’d enjoy something like that.” Viewers can find out if the painting is real on the new series of Fake Or Fortune, tonight at 9pm.
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