A portrait of Sir Winston Churchill hung on the walls of the famed Fairmont Chateau Laurier in Ottawa, Canada, for years — but in 2022 it was discovered the iconic photo had been replaced with a copy.
More than two years later, Ottawa Police have found the photograph in Italy and said the buyer is planning to hand it back over to Canada during a ceremony in Rome.
A hotel worker discovered something was amiss with the portrait, named "The Roaring Lion," in August 2022. He noticed the frame of the print did not match the others, the Smithsonian reported, so the hotel called photographer Yousuf Karsh's manager. 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," Geneviève Dumas, the Chateau Laurier's general manager, said in a news release at the time. "The hotel is incredibly proud to house this stunning Karsh collection, which was securely installed in 1998."
Karsh, one of the world's most celebrated portrait photographers, took Winston's photo in 1941 after he took the prime minister's cigar while he was smoking. Churchill's resulting scowl made the photo so famous that it eventually made it to the front of England's five-pound note.
Both Karsh and Winston had stayed at the hotel. Ottawa's CTV television reported Karsh and his wife lived in the hotel for two decades and even operated his studio in the hotel from 1972 to 1992.
A subsequent police investigation found the portrait had been taken between December 25, 2021, and January 6, 2022. Police found the portrait was sold through an auction house in London to a buyer in Italy. Both were unaware the portrait was stolen.
Ottawa police said they used "public tips, forensic analysis, and international cooperation," to track down the thief. A man from Ottawa — whose name the police won't release due to a publication ban — was arrested on April 25, 2024.
The 43-year-old was charged with theft and trafficking, police said. The portrait's buyer, who is from Genoa, has been working with Italian police to hand over the photo and "arrangements have been made with the citizen to ceremoniously hand over the portrait to the Ottawa Police Service in Rome later this month," police said.
"Once in Ottawa Police custody, the portrait will be ready for the last step of its journey home to the Fairmont Château Laurier, where it will once again be displayed as a notable historic portrait," police said.
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