Famous Churchill portrait returns to Ottawa after international art caper

OTTAWA — A stolen portrait of Winston Churchill that was swapped with a dodgy forgery during the pandemic returns to its rightful place today, after two Ottawa police detectives travelled to Rome to retrieve it.

The original artwork will be returned to its spot on the reading-room wall in the posh Fairmont Château Laurier hotel at a homecoming ceremony this morning.

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The most famous depiction of Churchill, known as “The Roaring Lion,” appears on the U.K.’s five-pound note and shows a glowering wartime prime minister staring into the camera.

Ottawa police launched an investigation after the heist was reported in 2022, and eventually tracked down the painting overseas in Genoa, Italy.

Police charged a man from the town of Powassan, Ont., just outside North Bay, with forgery, theft and trafficking and his case is before the courts.

Renowned photographer Yousuf Karsh snapped the iconic portrait in 1941 in the Speaker’s Office on Parliament Hill, just after Churchill delivered a rousing wartime address to Canadian lawmakers.

Toward the end of his life, Karsh signed and gifted the portrait to the hotel, where he had lived and worked.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 15, 2024.

The Canadian Press