Canadian who stole iconic Winston Churchill portrait sentenced
Ottawa Police members pose for a photo in Rome, Italy, in September of 2024 during a ceremony marking the repatriation of The Roaring Lion portrait of Sir Winston Churchill. The famed photo had been stolen from an Ottawa hotel in the winter of 2021-2022. On Monday, the thief, Jeffrey Lain James Wood, was sentenced to two years less a day in prison. Photo courtesy of Ottawa Police Service/ Facebook
May 27 (UPI) -- A Canadian man who pleaded guilty to stealing an iconic portrait of Sir Winston Churchill from a storied Ottawa hotel more than three years ago has been sentenced to two years less a day in prison.
Jeffrey Lain James Wood received his sentence Monday in an Ottawa courtroom, CBC reported. He had pleaded guilty in March to forgery, theft over $5,000 -- or $3,640 USD -- and trafficking property obtained by crime.
The Roaring Lion is a world-famous photograph of Churchill taken by renowned Armenian-Canadian photographer Yousuf Karsh in 1941 in the Canadian capital of Ottawa.
A resident of Ottawa's famed Fairmont Chateau Laurier for nearly two decades, Karsh moved out of the hotel in 1998, and upon his exit, gifted the hotel seven photographs, including the Churchill portrait, which hung on its walls until the pandemic hit.
According to the Chateau Laurier, the photograph was stolen between Dec. 25, 2021, and Jan. 6, 2022, and was replaced by the thief with an imitation, "deceiving everyone until a hotel staff member discovered the theft" that August.
Ottawa police said the hotel employee had noticed differences with the frame and the wire mechanism, which led to the discovery of the fake print, complete with a forged Karsh signature.
An investigation brought Ottawa police to the attention of a Roaring Lion print that was said to be from the Karsh estate and was up for sale at London's Sotheby's auction house. It was then sold to a buyer in Genoa, Italy.
Ottawa police said neither the buyer nor the auction house knew the photograph was stolen.
Police then learned that the seller was Wood, a man in his 40s from Powassan Ont., who had created a fake identity and credentials in an effort to move the famed photograph.
Wood was arrested and charged on April 24, 2024.
The photograph was returned to the hotel in September of that year and returned to its walls on Nov. 15, 2024.
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