A special ceremony at the Canadian Embassy in Rome marked the successful recovery of an iconic portrait of Winston Churchill after a two-year search by Ottawa police. Canada's Ambassador to Italy Elissa Goldberg hosted the event. The two primary Ottawa police detectives who investigated the heist were also present, along with the general manager of the Chateau Laurier, where the portrait was stolen, and Italian Carabinieri police who assisted in the international search.
At the ceremony, which lasted about a half hour, Italian police officially gave the portrait back to the Canadian ambassador. The handover was sealed with signatures. The photograph, called "The Roaring Lion," captures the former British prime minister glowering into the camera.
Famed photographer Yousuf Karsh captured Churchill's defiant look after plucking the former prime minister's cigar from his mouth. Churchill sat for the portrait on Dec. 30, 1941, after giving a rousing wartime speech to the Canadian parliament.
The portrait is the most reproduced photograph of Churchill. In 1998, Karsh and his wife Estrellita gifted an original signed print to the Fairmont Chateau Laurier hotel in Ottawa. The couple had lived and operated a studio inside the hotel for nearly two decades.
The photo hung on the oak panelled wall of the hotel's reading room. However, shortly after Christmas 2021 during COVID lockdowns, the signed portrait was removed and replaced by a fake, which was then put in a cheaper frame before b.