Stolen portrait of Sir Winston Churchill one step closer to returning home

The famed scowling portrait of Sir Winston Churchill is one step closer to returning home to Ottawa, as Canadian representatives are set to receive the photo in a ceremony in Italy on Thursday at the Canadian embassy.

It was in August 2022 that a staff member of the Fairmont Chateau Laurier in Ottawa noticed the frame in the Reading Lounge wasn’t hanging properly and didn’t look the same as others in the collection. An inspection revealed the photo was not the iconic original.

According to law enforcement, The Roaring Lion portrait was reported stolen that same month but it was determined through an investigation that it had been taken sometime between Christmas Day in 2021 and Jan. 6, 2022.

Last week, police announced that they had tracked down the famous portrait and arrested a man they say is the suspect in the theft.

Jeffrey Iain James Wood, from Powassan, Ont., has been charged with theft and trafficking of the portrait, with additional charges of forgery and mischief causing damage property exceeding $5,000.

Ottawa police initially had said his name was covered by a publication ban but later said they had reviewed the ban and could release his name.

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 — police said the sale of the famous photograph took place before it was even discovered and reported stolen.

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Churchill was originally photographed by Yousuf Karsh in 1941 following his speech to Canada’s House of Commons on Dec. 30, 1941. Karsh said he waited in the Speaker’s chamber after the speech, but the then-British prime minister “growled” he hadn’t been informed of the plan for a photograph.

Karsh recalled that the prime minister refused to put down his cigar — and it’s what happened next that allowed him to immortalize the scowl.

“Then I stepped toward him and, without premeditation, but ever so respectfully, I said, ‘Forgive me, sir,’ and plucked the cigar out of his mouth,” Karsh recalled, according to a write-up on the Estate of Yousuf Karsh website.

“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.”

The hotel’s general manager told reporters last week that once the portrait is returned, it would be very secure going forward, noting the hotel implemented a new security system for all of Karsh’s portraits after The Roaring Lion was discovered stolen.

— with files from the Canadian Press

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