Dignitaries have marked the recovery of a photo portrait of Winston Churchill known as The Roaring Lion, which was stolen in Canada and recovered in Italy after a two-year search by police.
At a ceremony at the Canadian Embassy in Rome, Italian police handed over the portrait to the Canadian ambassador to Italy, Elissa Golberg, who praised the cooperation between Italian and Canadian investigators that led to the recovery.
The 1941 portrait of the British Prime Minister taken by Ottawa photographer Yousuf Karsh is ready for the last step of its journey home to the Fairmont Chateau Laurier, the hotel in Ottawa where it was stolen and will once again be displayed.
Canadian police said the portrait was stolen from the hotel some time between Christmas 2021 and January 6 2022 and replaced with a forgery.
The swap was only discovered months later, in August, when a hotel worker noticed the frame was not hung properly and looked different than the others.
Nicola Cassinelli, a lawyer in Genoa, Italy, purchased the portrait in May 2022 at an online Sotheby’s auction for £5,292.
He said he got a phone call from the auction house that October advising him not to sell or otherwise transfer the portrait due to an investigation into the Ottawa theft.
Mr Cassinelli, who attended Thursday’s ceremony, said he thought he was buying a regular print and quickly agreed to send the iconic Churchill photograph home when he learned of its true story.
“I immediately decided to return it to the Chateau Laurier because I think that if Karsh donated it to the hotel, it means he really wanted it to stay there, for the particular significance this hotel had for him, and for his wife too,” Mr Cassinelli told The Associated Press.
The image 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 20th century’s most famous people, including Nelson Mandela, Albert Einstein and Queen Elizabeth II.
Karsh and his wife Estrellita gifted an original signed print to the Fairmont Chateau Laurier in 1998. The couple had lived and operated a studio inside the hotel for nearly two decades.
Genevieve Dumas, general manager of the Fairmont Chateau Laurier, said on Thursday she felt immensely grateful.
“I would like to extend my deepest gratitude to everybody involved in solving this case, and ensuring the safe return of this priceless piece of history,” she said.
Police arrested a 43-year-old man from Powassan, Ontario, in April and have charged him with stealing and trafficking the portrait.
The man, whose name is protected by a publication ban, faces charges that include forgery, theft and trafficking in property obtained by crime.
