Winston Churchill's Emerald Lake painting sells for roughly $70K more than estimate

A damaged, mislabelled painting of Emerald Lake done by former British prime minister Winston Churchill has sold at auction for more than six times its estimated value.

Churchill painted the majesticlake near Field, B.C.,when he visited the Canadian Rockies in 1929. However,the words "Lake Louise Canada"incorrectly appear on the bottom left of the artwork.

The painting hit Sotheby's auction block Tuesdayin London, and sold for47,500, or$87,267 Cdn(based on Sotheby's exchange rate of 1.8372). The auction house had estimated the value between $11,023 and $14,698.

• 'Not Lake Louise': Winston Churchill's mislabelled painting of Emerald Lake heads for auction

A Calgary historian who correctly predicted it would sell for far more than the estimatewasn't surprised.

"It's an interesting number," David Finch told CBC News on Tuesday.

"Yes, it is damaged, but hey, it's the real guy, it's the real thing. It would be a great talking piece in your multimillion-dollar chateau out on a lake somewhere."

Finch said painting was just one of Churchill's passions.

"He painted almost 600 paintings in his 20 years as a painter and I would credit most of the value of it to the renewed interest in the man."

Churchill had given the painting to one of his bodyguards, Edmund Murray, and it was one of Murray's relatives who put it up for sale.

Finch says the former prime minister was captured by the beauty of the region.

"Churchill wrote back to his wife and said, 'I want to bring you to Canada for many reasons but in particular to Lake Emerald because it's so beautiful here.'"

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