On Wednesday, the Ottawa police announced plans to send two officers to Rome in the coming days to retrieve a stolen portrait of Winston Churchill. The photograph in question, titled “The Roaring Lion,” was originally taken by renowned photographer Yousuf Karsh and is famously featured on the £5 banknote. For decades, the portrait had been prominently displayed in the lobby of the Fairmont Château Laurier hotel in Ottawa until an unusual discovery was made in August 2022 by a hotel cleaner.
The cleaner noticed discrepancies between the frame of the Churchill portrait and other Karsh photographs on display. This led to an investigation which revealed that the Churchill portrait was a replica and that Karsh’s signature had been forged. Further probing uncovered that the theft had occurred during the 2021/2022 holiday season, several months before the discovery. In April of this year, Canadian authorities arrested Jeffrey Iain James Wood, a 43-year-old from Powassan, Ontario, in connection with the theft.
According to reports, the stolen portrait was sold to Sotheby’s in London, where it was auctioned off to an Italian buyer for £5,292 (approximately €6,200). Neither Sotheby’s nor the buyer were aware of the theft, as the crime had not been reported at the time. The Canadian police are now working with the Carabinieri and the unnamed buyer from Genoa, who has been compensated for the loss.
Yousuf Karsh, who passed away in 2002, was a celebrated Canadian-Armenian photographer known for his portraits of political figures, artists, and scientists. Among his most famous works is a historic photo of Albert Einstein, but it was the Churchill portrait that brought him international acclaim. Karsh’s decision to remove Churchill’s cigar just before the photograph was taken resulted in the Prime Minister’s fierce expression, which became an enduring symbol of resistance during World War II.
