In August 2022, in a heist reminiscent of a Donald E. Westlake plot, an employee at the Château Laurier Hotel in Ottawa noticed something was amiss.
A famous portrait of former UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill nicknamed the "Roaring Lion," hung in the hotel. It was taken after the British wartime leader addressed the Canadian parliament in 1941 and also appears on the UK £5 banknote.
A staff member at the hotel noticed that the frame didn’t match the five other portraits in the room, all of which had been photographed by the Canadian-Armenian portraitist Yousef Karsh. Karsh also photographed Martin Luther King Jr, Queen Elizabeth II, and Albert Einstein.
It only took Jerry Fielder, overseer of Karsh’s estate, to realize that the signature on the Churchill portrait, which had hung in the hotel for 26 years, was wrong.
Karsh told the Guardian at the time:
"I’ve seen that signature for 43 years. So it took me just one second to know that someone had tried to copy it," Fielder told the Guardian. "It was a fake."
After eluding the police for over two years, on Wednesday September 11, Ottawa police revealed the portrait had been found in the possession of a private buyer in Genoa, Italy, who the police state was unaware the portrait was stolen goods.
Officials also arrested another man from Powassan, Ontario in connection with the theft, who cannot be named because of a publication ban.
The 43-year-old man was arrested on 25 April, and appeared in Ottawa court the next day on several charges including forgery, theft, trafficking, and damage to property.
Police believe the photograph was stolen between December 25, 2021, and January 6, 2022, during very strict Covid-19 lockdown rules.
Ottawa police said they used "public tips, forensic analysis, and international cooperation" to track down the thief.
"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.
The Château Laurier Hotel has strong connections with both Churchill and Karsh. Both stayed at the hotel, and Ottawa’s CTV reported that Karsh and his wife lived at the hotel for two decades, and he even operated his photography studio from there between 1972 and 1992.
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