Officials from Canada and Italy celebrated the recovery of a photo portrait of Winston Churchill on Thursday. The image, known as The Roaring Lion, was stolen from a hotel in Ottawa, Canada. A forgery went in its place.
Churchill was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during World War II. He visited the Canadian Parliament in December 1941. He gave a speech there, just weeks after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Ottawa photographer Yousuf Karsh captured his portrait image then.
The photo theft occurred sometime between Christmas 2021 and January 6, 2022. The swap was discovered months later. A hotel worker at the Fairmont Château Laurier hotel noticed the frame was not hung properly and looked different from the others.
Nicola Cassinelli is a lawyer from Genoa, Italy. He purchased the original portrait in May of 2022 from an online Sotheby’s auction. He bought the photo for 5,202 British pounds. (That’s close to $7,000.)
He says he received a phone call from the auction house five months later. Staff told him not to sell or otherwise transfer the portrait. The Ottawa theft was under investigation.
Cassinelli thought he had purchased a regular print. He agreed to send the Churchill photograph back to the hotel upon learning the truth.
“I immediately decided to return it to the Château Laurier, because I think that if Karsh donated it to the hotel, it means he really wanted it to stay there,” Cassinelli says.
Geneviève Dumas is the general manager of the Fairmont Château Laurier. She says she feels immensely grateful. “I would like to extend my deepest gratitude to everybody involved in solving this case, and ensuring the safe return of this priceless piece of history.”
Police arrested 43-year-old Jeffrey Iain James Wood from Powassan, Ontario, in April. They charged him with stealing, forgery, and trafficking the portrait.
Karsh and his wife Estrellita gifted the original signed print to the Fairmont Château Laurier in 1998. The couple had lived and operated a studio inside the hotel for nearly two decades.
The photo helped launch Karsh’s career. He photographed some of the 20th century’s most famous leaders. His portraits include Nelson Mandela, Albert Einstein, and Queen Elizabeth.
How did Karsh capture Churchill’s iconic glare so effectively? He requested that the prime minister put down his cigar. Karsh was concerned the smoke would blur the image. Churchill refused. Karsh said, “Forgive me, sir,” and snatched the cigar out of his mouth.
Mr. Karsh wrote, “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.”
Churchill said after the shot, “You can even make a roaring lion stand still to be photographed.”
