OTTAWA, Ont. — Canadian police say a well-known portrait of Winston Churchill reported stolen from an Ottawa hotel has been tracked down in Italy.
Investigators will travel to Rome later this month to retrieve the 1941 portrait of the British leader taken by Ottawa photographer Yousuf Karsh, police said in a news release.
“Once in Ottawa Police custody, the portrait will be ready for the final step of its journey home to the Fairmont Château Laurier, where it will be re-displayed as a remarkable historical portrait,” police said.
Police said “The Roaring Lion” was stolen from the Fairmont Chateau Laurier in Ottawa sometime between Christmas Day 2021 and Jan. 6, 2022, and replaced with a forgery. The swap only came to light months later, in August, when a hotel employee noticed that the frame had not been hung properly and looked different from the others.
“It was determined that the portrait had been sold through an auction house in London to a buyer in Italy, both of whom were unaware that the piece had been stolen,” the statement said. “Using public tips, forensic analysis and international cooperation, investigators tracked down the person responsible for the theft.”
Nicola Cassinelli, a lawyer in Genoa, Italy, bought the portrait at an online Sotheby’s auction in May 2022 for ÂŁ5,292. He says he received a call from the auction house in October advising not to sell or otherwise transfer the portrait due to an investigation into the theft in Ottawa.
Cassinelli said he was surprised to learn the answer to the high-profile robbery may have been hanging on the wall in his living room. He plans to attend a ceremony next Thursday at the Canadian Embassy in Rome to mark the portrait’s return.
At a news conference at the hotel on Wednesday afternoon, Geneviève Dumas, general manager of the Fairmont Château Laurier, said the theft occurred at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Everything was closed and we narrowed the gap to 12 days,” Dumas said. “The way it happened, there was no one in the hotel and we only discovered it eight months later.”
Ottawa Police Det. Akiva Gellar said the portrait was recovered after “a very extensive investigation” that lasted more than two years but provided few details.
Much of the investigation is “still very sensitive because the matter is before the courts,” he said.
“Many details about how we found it, and further details will be released at the ceremony in Rome,” Gellar said. “And later, once we get the portrait back to Canada, we’ll be able to talk more about that.”
Police arrested a 43-year-old man from Powassan, Ontario in April and charged him with theft and trafficking in the portrait.
The man, whose name is protected by a publication ban, faces charges including forgery, theft over $5,000 and dealing in property obtained by crime over $5,000.
The famous photo was taken by Karsh during Churchill’s wartime visit to the Canadian Parliament in December 1941.
It helped launch the career of Karsh, who photographed some of the most famous icons of the 20th century, including Nelson Mandela, Albert Einstein and Queen Elizabeth.
