Two paintings by former Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill are due to go on sale at Essex auction house Boningtons Auctioneers.
Both paintings come from a private Essex collection and go on sale on July 27 at Boningtons' saleroom in Epping, where Churchill served as Member of Parliament between 1924 and 1945.
The larger of the two paintings, a 70 x 90 cm oil on canvas depicting the Giza Pyramids at Cairo, was painted circa 1946 and was given by Churchill to Field Marshall Jan Christian Smuts as a present along with another painting of the pyramids.
Field Marshall Smuts hung the painting due to go up for auction, and now worth an estimated £400,000 to 600,000, in his study at home, while the other used to reside at Libertas in Pretoria, South Africa, but was stolen in 1972 and never traced.
Luke Bodalbhai, head of department of fine art at Boningtons, which has a valuation office in Chelmsford, said: "We are delighted to become the first regional saleroom to offer original paintings by Winston Churchill, a world famous figure with an intimate connection to our local area.
"Churchill wrote that "painting a picture is like fighting a battle" and our pictures show him to be a serious and talented artist, determined to push himself to the limit in all that he attempted."
The second picture was painted by Churchill on a six week visit to Florida, his first extended holiday after the Second World War, and depicts a view from the Venetian Causeway in Miami Beach.
Churchill gave the painting to his Canadian host Colonel Frank W. Clarke and it is now estimated to be worth £150,000 to 250,000.
The former prime minister's artwork has increased greatly in popularity since his death, 50 years ago.
A recent sale of his paintings by Mary Soames, his youngest daughter, saw one painting, The Goldfish Pool at Chartwell, go for £1.5million, the highest price ever paid for one of his pieces at auction.
