Coveted Churchill Artifacts Go on Sale in New York 

Winston Churchill’s personal desk and a portrait of the late British leader by Arthur Pan, part of Winston S. Churchill Collection of Steve Forbes, are displayed at the Winter Show in New York City on January 18, 2024. (AFP)
Winston Churchill’s personal desk and a portrait of the late British leader by Arthur Pan, part of Winston S. Churchill Collection of Steve Forbes, are displayed at the Winter Show in New York City on January 18, 2024. (AFP)
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Coveted Churchill Artifacts Go on Sale in New York 

Winston Churchill’s personal desk and a portrait of the late British leader by Arthur Pan, part of Winston S. Churchill Collection of Steve Forbes, are displayed at the Winter Show in New York City on January 18, 2024. (AFP)
Winston Churchill’s personal desk and a portrait of the late British leader by Arthur Pan, part of Winston S. Churchill Collection of Steve Forbes, are displayed at the Winter Show in New York City on January 18, 2024. (AFP)

A treasure trove of Winston Churchill's possessions including his desk, a holiday painting from a trip to Morocco, and a copy of his first book go on sale in New York on Thursday.

An imposing portrait of the British wartime leader by Hungarian artist Arthur Pan, sold at the height of the Second World War in 1943 to fundraise for Clementine Churchill's Aid to Russia Fund, is listed for $125,000.

The pieces are on sale at the Winter Show art, antiques and design fair in New York until January 28. They were acquired from the heir to the Forbes media fortune Steve Forbes.

"We've bought the highlights, we have papers, letters and we also have the desk and the painting -- crown jewel stuff," rare books dealer Pom Harrington told AFP.

Harrington said the cigar-smoking former prime minister had an enduring appeal in the United States.

"He's a war hero -- he was the underdog," he said. "We'll have plenty of customers in America."

Churchill was born to a mother from the United States and a British father and went on to receive honorary US citizenship.

His 1935 oil study of "The Entrance to the Gorge at Todhra" near Marrakesh in Morocco has an asking price of $395,000.

"If it weren't for painting, I could not live; I could not bear the strain of things," Churchill famously once said.

The desk, available for $450,000, was from his London home at Hyde Park Gate and was used while writing his "Second World War" memoirs, hand-corrected revised proofs of which are on sale for $750,000.

An inscribed copy of a first edition of "The Story of the Malakand Field Force," Churchill's first published non-fiction work, described by Harrington as "exceedingly rare" is on sale for $47,500.

And a copy of "Savrola," inscribed by Churchill to his military mentor Ian Hamilton after the two men were involved in the relief of Ladysmith following a 118-day siege, is on sale for $47,500.

The area around Ladysmith in South Africa was the scene of one of the bloodiest battles of the Boer War more than a century ago.

The battle involved three future world leaders Churchill, stretcher-bearer Mahatma Gandhi who later led India to independence and Louis Botha, South Africa's first prime minister.

Bound editions of Churchill's "On Free Trade" speeches, in defense of the free market, will likely attract the interest of collectors because of how rarely examples are available to purchase, Harrington said.

"If I'm a collector of rare books, these are the things to buy," said Harrington of the volumes, listed for $150,000.



10 Endangered Black Rhinos Sent from S.Africa to Mozambique

Kenya Wildlife Services veterinarians and rangers rush to aid a sedated female black Rhinoceros that has been selected for translocation to the Segera Rhino Sanctuary from the Lake Nakuru National Park on June 07, 2025. (Photo by Tony KARUMBA / AFP)
Kenya Wildlife Services veterinarians and rangers rush to aid a sedated female black Rhinoceros that has been selected for translocation to the Segera Rhino Sanctuary from the Lake Nakuru National Park on June 07, 2025. (Photo by Tony KARUMBA / AFP)
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10 Endangered Black Rhinos Sent from S.Africa to Mozambique

Kenya Wildlife Services veterinarians and rangers rush to aid a sedated female black Rhinoceros that has been selected for translocation to the Segera Rhino Sanctuary from the Lake Nakuru National Park on June 07, 2025. (Photo by Tony KARUMBA / AFP)
Kenya Wildlife Services veterinarians and rangers rush to aid a sedated female black Rhinoceros that has been selected for translocation to the Segera Rhino Sanctuary from the Lake Nakuru National Park on June 07, 2025. (Photo by Tony KARUMBA / AFP)

Ten black rhinos have been moved from South Africa to Mozambique to secure breeding of the critically endangered animals that became locally extinct 50 years ago, conservationists said Thursday.

The five male and five female rhinos were transferred to Mozambique's Zinave National Park in a 48-hour road trip last week, said the Peace Parks Foundation, which took part in the translocation.

"It was necessary to introduce these 10 to make the population viable," communication coordinator Lesa van Rooyen told AFP.

The new arrivals will "secure the first founder population of black rhinos since becoming locally extinct five decades ago,” South Africa's environment ministry, which was also involved, said in a statement.

Twelve black rhinos had previously been sent from South Africa to Zinave in central Mozambique but the population was still not viable for breeding, Van Rooyen said.

Twenty-five white rhinos, which are classified as less threatened, were also translocated in various operations.

The global black rhino population dropped by 96 percent between 1970 and 1993, reaching a low of only 2,300 surviving in the wild, according to the International Rhino Foundation.

Decades of conservation efforts allowed the species to slowly recover and the population is estimated at 6,421 today.

Once abundant across sub-Saharan Africa, rhino numbers fell dramatically due to hunting by European colonizers and large-scale poaching, with their horns highly sought after on black markets particularly in Asia.

Mozambique's population of the large animals was depleted during the 15-year civil war, which ended in 1992 and pushed many people to desperate measures to "survive in very difficult circumstances", van Rooyen said.

Years of rewilding efforts have established Zinave as Mozambique’s only national park home to the "Big Five" game animals -- elephant, rhino, lion, leopard and buffalo.