A portrait of Sir Winston Churchill had hung on the walls of the famous Fairmont Chateau Laurier in Ottawa, Canada, for years – but in 2022, it was discovered that the iconic photo had been replaced with a copy.
More than two years later, Ottawa police found the photograph in Italy and said the buyer planned to return it to Canada at a ceremony in Rome.
In August 2022, a hotel employee discovered something was wrong with the portrait titled “The Roaring Lion.” He noticed that the frame of the print didn’t match the others, the Smithsonian reported, so the hotel called the photographer’s manager Yousuf Karsh. The manager said he took one look at the signature on the replacement photo and knew it was a copy.
“We are deeply saddened by this brazen act,” Château Laurier general manager Geneviève Dumas said in a press release at the time. “The hotel is incredibly proud to be home to this magnificent Karsh collection, safely installed in 1998.”
Karsh, one of the world’s most famous portrait photographers, took the photo of Winston in 1941 after he took the prime minister’s cigar while he was smoking. Churchill’s scowl made the photo so famous that it eventually appeared on the front of England’s five-pound note.
Karsh and Winston had both stayed at the hotel. Ottawa’s CTV reported that Karsh and his wife lived in the hotel for two decades and even operated his studio there from 1972 to 1992.
A subsequent police investigation revealed that the portrait was taken between December 25, 2021 and January 6, 2022. Police discovered that the portrait had been sold through an auction house in London to a buyer in Italy. Neither party was aware that the portrait had been stolen.
Ottawa police said they used “public information, forensic analysis and international cooperation” to track down the thief. An Ottawa man, whose name police are not releasing due to a publication ban, was arrested on April 25, 2024.
The 43-year-old man has been charged with theft and trafficking, police said. The buyer of the portrait, originally from Genoa, worked with Italian police to get the photo back to him and “arrangements have been made with the citizen to formally deliver the portrait to the Ottawa Police Service in Rome later this month,” police said.
“Once in the custody of the Ottawa police, the portrait will be ready for the final leg of its journey to the Fairmont Chateau Laurier, where it will once again be displayed as a remarkable historical portrait,” police said.
