Churchill ‘Roaring Lion' photo thief ‘breached trust' of nation
A thief who stole a photograph of Sir Winston Churchill was told he had 'breached' the trust of the nation as he was sentenced to just shy of two years in jail for one of the most brazen art heists in Canadian history.
Jeffrey Ian James Wood, a 44-year-old small-time art collector, removed the famed 'Roaring Lion' print of Britain's wartime leader from Ottawa's Fairmont Château hotel in January 2022.
The 20 x 24 portrait of Sir Winston outside Canada's House of Commons, taken by by Armenian-Canadian photographer Yousuf Karsh in 1941, features on £5 banknotes and is estimated to be worth millions of pounds.
The theft was not discovered until months later, as Wood had replaced the original with a fake.
After a two-year international search, the original print was discovered in the possession of a private buyer in Genoa, Italy, who bought it for £4,200 believing it was a signed copy.
The picture had been taken to Europe and sold at Sotheby's, the British fine art broker which was not aware it was stolen.
Wood, a failed philosophy student that struggled to keep steady employment, made approximately £2,700 from the theft.
He had hatched the plot in December 2021 to try and financially support his brother, who he says was debilitated with mental health problems.
He told the court: 'I had never in 40 years gone to bed or woken up considering committing a crime.
'I never even had a speeding ticket and some day in the first 10 days of December 2021... I knew that I had to intervene in a meaningful way and I had an obstacle. That obstacle was money.'
Ninety minutes after he sold the painting, his brother was found dead in a bathtub, Wood told the court.
Wood described lying in bed at night racked by guilt and 'formulating and reformulating apologies' to Karsh's family.
Justice Robert Wadden said Wood had breached the nation's trust and that the print was 'irreplaceable'.
'It is a point of national pride that a portrait taken by a Canadian photographer would have achieved such fame.'
'There is an element of trust in our society that allows such properties to be displayed, to be enjoyed by all Canadians. To steal, damage and traffic in such property is to breach that trust,' he added.
Lawrence Greenspon, Wood's defence lawyer, told reporters outside the courthouse that he would be launching an appeal within 10 days.
He said: 'It was an unnecessarily harsh sentence. Given that he's a first-time offender, it's a property crime and he pleaded guilty.'
Nicola Cassinelli, the Genoa buyer and a prominent lawyer, said an interview with The Telegraph last November that Sotheby's called him three months after the purchase imploring him not to sell or transfer the work to any third parties as an investigation was underway.
Scotland Yard detectives, with the assistance of their counterparts in Italy's Carabinieri, had traced the portrait to Genoa following the Sotheby's sale.
After a few Google searches, Mr Cassnielli realised he was unwittingly embroiled in the Canadian art heist mystery of the century and returned it to the Fairmont Château hotel.
He said: 'This was the emblematic photo that captured his anger, the strength of the free world – good that triumphs over evil. It's historic.
'All my friends and guests who came to my house, we would joke about having such an important piece of artwork right before our eyes.
'Like having a Mona Lisa... because I paid a few thousand pounds but online I had read it was worth millions. It was as if I was in a film.'
In 2023, Wood was successfully identified as the seller after Detective Akiva Geller of the Ottawa Police found a DNA match between a toothbrush left by Wood in a locker and the piece of duct tape used to fix the fake on the lounge wall.
Inside the locker they discovered a second fake printout of the 'Roaring Lion' with an invoice from the online company Redbubble, Canadian media reported. The receipt was in Wood's name.
Geneviève Dumas, the general manager of the Château Laurier hotel, said: 'We're very happy to see that Canadian history is recognised.'
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