Stolen Winston Churchill portrait found in Italy—how a brazen art he gripped Canada for 2 years | Trending

A brazen art he that gripped Canadians has been solved: a famed portrait of a scowling Winston Churchill stolen from an Ottawa hotel has been found in Italy and the thief has been nabbed, police said Wednesday. October 1939: Prime Miner of Great Britain Winston Churchill (1874 – 1965) making a speech. Churchill’s unfavourable views on Indians aggravated food scarcity during the Great Bengal Famine of 1943. (Getty Images) The “Roaring Lion” portrait of the late British prime miner had been gifted to the Fairmont Chateau Laurier hotel in Ottawa the late Armenian-born Canadian photographer Yousuf Karsh. It was taken Karsh after the wartime leader addressed the Canadian parliament in 1941, becoming a symbol of British defiance in World War II. In August 2022, hotel staff noticed the photograph, hanging in a reading room next to the main lob, had been replaced with a forgery. Two years on, Ottawa police say they have, with the help of public tips and forensic sleuthing, found the culprit — a 43-year-old man living 230 miles (370 kilometers) west of Ottawa — and the stolen portrait in Genoa, Italy. “The portrait was sold through an auction house in London to a buyer in Italy, both of whom were unaware that the piece was stolen,” police said in a statement. The suspect was arrested in April and charged with theft, forgery, and trafficking in stolen goods. “We are thrilled about the iconic Roaring Lion portrait returning to its rightful home at the Fairmont Chateau Laurier,” hotel general manager Genevieve Dumas told AFP. “This portrait… is not only an irreplaceable work of art but also a significant piece of our hotel’s hory,” she said. The artwork is to be returned in the coming weeks to the hotel, which plans to once again put it on display for guests. Karsh and his wife, after fleeing the Armenian genocide and settling in Canada, lived at the hotel for 18 years. He also had a studio there until 1992. His other portrait subjects included Martin Luther King, Jr, Ernest Hemingway and Queen Elizabeth II. According to horical accounts, Karsh plucked a cigar from Churchill’s mouth just before taking his portrait, which made the British premier grimace. The image is arguably the most iconic of Churchill and widely circulated, even appearing on the British five pound note. Maintenance staff had been the first to notice portrait’s disappearance. As speculation swirled over the he, former hotel guests shared their snaps of the portrait over the years, helping to narrow down the date when it likely went missing from December 25, 2021 to January 6, 2022. The hotel, which had hosted Karsh’s first exhibition in 1936, also confirmed with the photographer’s estate that a signature on the print was a fake.