Ottawa’s Fairmont Château Laurier threw a homecoming party Friday to celebrate the return of a famous Winston Churchill portrait by renowned photographer Yousuf Karsh that was stolen in 2022.
Italian lawyer Nicola Cassinelli, who unwittingly bought the stolen portrait from a Sotheby’s catalogue, wrote a letter that was read out during the private ceremony.
“I had it hanging in my living room, without even knowing it, a piece of art that … captures in the eyes of Sir Winston Churchill, the pride, the anger and the strength of the free world,” his letter said.
“It cannot belong to one person and cannot be confined to the private space of a living room,” he stated. “The Roaring Lion belongs to anyone who cherishes freedom… I did not hesitate to return it.”
At the event in the renovated hotel lounge, Ottawa detective Akiva Geller said that during a two-year investigation into the theft of the Roaring Lion, police received assistance from the community and international law-enforcement agencies. They identified and charged Jeffrey Iain James Wood, 43, from Powassan, Ont.
“Two years ago, I stood here in what was then the reading room of the Château Laurier,” said Geller. “I was looking up the wall of the Roaring Lion, where it once hung, and I was wondering to myself, how in the world are we going to figure this out.”
The portrait was returned from Italy this fall and is back in its original spot of the former reading room, which has been transformed to Zoe’s Lounge.
“The operation to bring it back was almost like something you would see in a movie: covert, intense, incredibly well executed,” Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe said.
Karsh’s first exhibition was in the drawing room of the Château Laurier in the 1930s. The photograph was shot in 1941 in the Speaker’s Chamber of the Canadian House of Commons after Churchill made an important speech about the Second World War. The Château Laurier played an important role in Karsh’s life, and in the early 1970s, he relocated his studio to the 6th floor of the hotel. In the early 1980s he moved into the hotel with his wife.
“It was not just where we lived and worked. It was our home, and the staff became our family,” stated Estrellita Karsh, Yousuf’s wife, in a letter read at the ceremony. “When Yousuf and I left, we wanted to do something to express our gratitude for decades of hospitality, and he chose the portrait to hang in the reading lounge, where we had spent happy evening with friends.”
In early October of this year, the portrait was carefully crated and then shipped by air from Rome to Toronto. It was driven to Ottawa where staff of the hotel and Ottawa police welcomed it back to the city.
“This so much more than just a photograph. It represents the fierce determination of one of the 20th century’s most influential leaders,” said Sutcliffe. “It represents an era, a legacy, and the incredible talent of Yousuf Karsh who made Ottawa his home and shared his extraordinary vision and talent with the world.”
