Sir Winston Churchill will return to scowling in the halls of Ottawa’s Fairmont Chateau Laurier in the months to come after a two-year-long whodunit led to the Ottawa Police Service tracking down the famous portrait of the former British prime minister in Italy.
The Roaring Lion portrait of Churchill was reported stolen from the hotel in Ottawa in August 2022 and, following an investigation, was determined to have actually been taken between Christmas Day in 2021 and Jan. 6, 2022.
In August 2022, a staff member at the hotel noticed the frame in the Reading Lounge wasn’t hanging properly and didn’t look the same as the others in the collection. An inspection revealed the photo in the frame was not the original, but it was not clear how long the copy had been hanging.
“We are deeply saddened by this brazen act,” the hotel’s general manager, Genevieve Dumas, said in a statement at the time.
The portrait was determined to have been sold through an auction house in London to an Italian buyer, both of whom were unaware that the piece was stolen, according to a statement from police.
Originally photographed by Yousuf Karsh in 1941, the famous portrait was swapped out with a signed copy.
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Karsh and his wife lived at the Chateau Laurier for 18 years. Karsh’s studio was in the hotel for 20 years, starting in 1972, and it was the location of several of his famous portraits, including one of South Africa’s Nelson Mandela in 1990.
That portrait of Churchill changed Karsh’s life, according to the artist’s website. It was taken after the then-British prime minister gave a speech to Canada’s House of Commons on Dec. 30, 1941.
According to Karsh, he waited in the Speaker’s chamber after the “electrifying speech” to take a photograph, but Churchill “growled” that he hadn’t been informed. Karsh recalled that the prime minister refused to put down his cigar — and it’s what happened next that allowed him to immortalize the scowl.
“Then I stepped toward him and, without premeditation, but ever so respectfully, I said, ‘Forgive me, sir,’ and plucked the cigar out of his mouth,” Karsh recalled, according to a write-up on the Estate of Yousuf Karsh website.
“By the time I got back to my camera, he looked so belligerent he could have devoured me. It was at that instant that I took the photograph.”
Following tips from the public, forensic analysis and international co-operation, investigators tracked down the suspect in the theft, police said.
A 43-year-old man from Powassan, Ont., was arrested and charged with theft and trafficking of the portrait, with additional charges of forgery and mischief causing damage property exceeding $5,000. His name is protected by a publication ban and has made an appearance in court.
Ottawa police worked with the Carabinieri, the national law enforcement of Italy, and a private citizen in Genoa, Italy, who purchased the portrait, to ensure its return to Canada.
The purchaser is expected to turn over the portrait to Ottawa police in Rome later this month, who will then take it back to Canada for it to hang once more in the Fairmont Chateau Laurier.
— with files from The Canadian Press
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