NEW DISCOVERY: MIAMI BEACH 1946 - WAS THOUGHT TO BE VENICE, ITALY

Winston Churchill's painting will now be called "A View of Miami at Sunset." Photo: Courtesy of America's National Churchill Museum

Experts say "Distant View of Venice," a painting by former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, actually depicts Miami Beach — not Italy, as previously believed.

What's happening: Researcher Paul Rafferty realized the work was painted while Churchill was staying on North Bay Road in 1946.

Why it matters: Churchill was here preparing a famous speech anticipating the Cold War, warning that even though World War II had ended, an "Iron Curtain" could descend across Europe.

Details: Representatives of America's National Churchill Museum, located at Westminster College in Missouri, took photos from the site in August and confirmed Rafferty's findings.

Of note: Another painting Churchill made on his Miami trip sold for £192,000 at auction in 2016.

PHOTOGRAPH: TIM RILEY

WINSTON CHURCHILL PAINTING ATTRIBUTED: Fake or Fortune? painting uncoveredMystery of Sir Winston Churchill's paintings finally solved | By Dalya Alberge, The Telegraph

above - WINSTON CHURCHILL PAINTING ON PLAGE DE LA GAROUPE, CAP D’ANTIBES

ORDERTHE BOOK - WINSTON CHURCHILL: PAINTING ON THE FRENCH RIVIERA - HERE.

SUNDAY TELEGRAPH 20TH SEPTEMBER 2020………

Art detectives on the BBC's Fake or Fortune? television series tried in vain in 2015 to prove that a painting of a sun-drenched village scene on the French Riviera was by Sir Winston Churchill. 

But experts on the wartime leader rejected the attribution, partly because there was not enough documentary evidence.

Now British artist Paul Rafferty has uncovered a "smoking gun", a thumbnail photograph (above) of that very painting - the fountain of St-Paul-de-Vence - at Chartwell, Churchill's family home in Kent. 

[...]

The episode, presented by Philip Mould and Fiona Bruce, had established that the painting depicted St-Paul-de-Vence and unearthed evidence placing the great man at the scene. 

They believed in the attribution, along with Mr Rafferty, who detected Churchill's pencil-marks and palette of colours. Although the picture had been found in the 1960s, in the coal-shed of a London house once owned by Churchill's daughter, Sarah, Churchill experts still required further evidence. The programme ended with Mr Mould suggesting that evidence might one day emerge, adding: "You could say that Churchill lives to fight another day."

[...]

Mr Mould, whose new Fake of Fortune? series is in production, said: "In over 30 programmes, I used always to quote this - until now - as one of our most unsatisfactory endings. I simply could not understand why - it gave me sleepless nights given the overpowering circumstantial evidence we had garnered.

Read the full artcile here.