The mystery of Ottawa’s stolen Winston Churchill portrait has been solved
Global News
Ottawa police announced they had found the location of the iconic 'The Roaring Lion' portrait of Sir Winston Churchill, which was reported stolen in summer 2022.
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.
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.
