A painting of flowers by former British prime minister Winston Churchill has sold for £716,800 at Christie’s in London, with all of the hammer-price proceeds set to support a charity programme promoting arts in public spaces. The painting, Amaryllis Lily, was sold during Christie’s Modern British and Irish Art Evening Sale on October 21, 2026. 100% of the hammer price will benefit the Churchill Fellowship, turning a work from Churchill’s personal art collection into funding for community-focused arts initiatives, according to the auction house’s official results.
The painting, created in 1948, had been estimated to sell for between £300,000 and £500,000 before the auction. Its final price exceeded the upper end of that estimate by £216,800. Amaryllis Lily is an oil painting on canvas measuring 36 by 24 inches, or approximately 91.5 by 61 centimetres. She subsequently donated it in 1995 to the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust, now known as the Churchill Fellowship, allowing the organisation to use the artwork at its discretion to support its work. He began painting in 1915 and continued for decades, producing landscapes, still lifes and scenes inspired by his travels.
Christie’s confirmed the sale in its results announcement and said the money would help fund the Fellowship’s “Making Space for the Arts” programme. Christie’s catalogue records Churchill’s initials, “WSC”, in the lower-left corner. Churchill gifted the painting to his youngest daughter, Lady Mary Soames, according to the auction catalogue. The proceeds are intended to support the Churchill Fellowship’s “Making Space for the Arts” programme, a three-year initiative launched in 2025. The initiative supports projects that explore how large-scale artistic activity can be designed and delivered with communities, according to the Fellowship’s official website.
The work’s ownership history gives it a personal connection to the Churchill family. Churchill is best known internationally for leading Britain during the Second World War and serving as prime minister, but painting was also an important personal pursuit. The programme seeks to strengthen artistic practice in public spaces and broaden access to cultural activities. It also aims to expand participation in public arts, making cultural experiences more inclusive and relevant to people in different places.
The auction proceeds will contribute to this work, although Christie’s has not said that the sale alone will finance the entire programme. The organisation also points to pressures facing the arts sector, including reduced local government cultural funding in parts of the UK and the closure of some traditional venues. Its programme aims to help practitioners develop new approaches to public-facing artistic activity.