Latest news with #RoaringLion
Gulf Today
28-05-2025
- Gulf Today
Thief of famed Churchill photo sentenced to jail: Canadian media
A Canadian man who stole the famed portrait of a scowling Winston Churchill in a brazen international art heist was sentenced to jail Monday, according to local media. The "Roaring Lion" portrait of the late British prime minister had been gifted to the Fairmont Chateau Laurier hotel in Ottawa by the late Armenian-born Canadian photographer Yousuf Karsh. Taken by Karsh after the wartime leader addressed the Canadian parliament in 1941, Churchill's scowl becoming a symbol of British defiance in World War II. In August 2022 hotel staff noticed the photograph, hanging in a reading room next to the main lobby, had been replaced with a forgery, and Ottawa police in 2024 announced they had found the culprit. According to Canada's public broadcaster CBC, the man, Jeffrey Wood, pleaded guilty to forgery, theft, and trafficking property obtained by crime in March. He was sentenced to jail for a duration of two years less a day on Monday at an Ottawa courthouse. CBC reported that Justice Robert Wadden told Wood that he was guilty of stealing a "cultural and historical" portrait that was a "point of national pride." In 2024, Ottawa police said that with the help of public tips and forensic sleuthing, they had found Wood living just west of Ottawa while the stolen portrait was in Italy. The portrait had been sold through an auction house in London to a buyer in Italy, both of whom were unaware it was stolen, police said then. It was returned to the hotel last September. The image is arguably the most recognized of Churchill and widely circulated, even appearing on the British five pound note. In an account posted on his official website, Karsh said making the portrait "changed my life." He had captured Churchill's churlish expression immediately after plucking a cigar out of the British leader's mouth. "By the time I got back to my camera, he looked so belligerent he could have devoured me," Karsh said. "It was at that instant that I took the photograph." Agence France-Presse
Ammon
28-05-2025
- Ammon
Thief of Churchill photo sentenced to two years in prison
Ammon News - A Canadian man who stole the famed portrait of a scowling Winston Churchill in a brazen international art heist was sentenced to jail Monday, according to local media. The "Roaring Lion" portrait of the late British prime minister had been gifted to the Fairmont Chateau Laurier hotel in Ottawa by the late Armenian-born Canadian photographer Yousuf Karsh. Taken by Karsh after the wartime leader addressed the Canadian parliament in 1941, Churchill's scowl became a symbol of British defiance in World War II. In August 2022, hotel staff noticed the photograph, hanging in a reading room next to the main lobby, had been replaced with a forgery, and Ottawa police in 2024 announced they had found the culprit. According to Canada's public broadcaster CBC, the man, Jeffrey Wood, pleaded guilty to forgery, theft, and trafficking property obtained by crime in March. He was sentenced to jail for a duration of two years less a day on Monday at an Ottawa courthouse.
Ottawa Citizen
27-05-2025
- Ottawa Citizen
Thief of iconic Winston Churchill portrait sentenced to two years in jail
Article content Article content Sadly, the man who has worked at the hotel for more than 30 years was subjected to police questioning and a lie-detector test, which he passed. (Polygraphs are not legally allowed in Canadian courts as evidence in light of significant flaws, which have led to wrongful convictions.) Article content Hotel manager Geneviève Dumas said the case was awful for morale because some staff were wrongly treated as suspects. Article content The hotel did not store surveillance footage long enough to capture the crime, so there is no video account of the theft. Article content Police appealed for the public's help and asked to send them photographs of the Roaring Lion. Hotel visitors and guests sent in enough photographs to pinpoint the last time the original had been on the wall, and, days later, when the fake had replaced it. Article content A detective, using online searches, found that a 'Roaring Lion' print had been sold at auction months earlier, and asked for help from counterparts overseas to get the auction house records. Article content Article content It turned out that Wood had used his real name and address when he negotiated with Sotheby's auction house. Article content The Ottawa police investigation found Wood had contacted the auction house months before he stole the print, falsely claiming he acquired it from the Karsh estate. The print was sold to a buyer in Italy, where Ottawa detectives went to retrieve it. Article content According to the police investigation detailed in court, Wood left for Mexico on Jan. 5, 2022. His phone records showed he called a storage company on Dec. 27, 2021. Police later searched Wood's storage locker, where they found and seized another online print of the Roaring Lion. Article content Police also found a bar of Irish Spring soap and a toothbrush, which they swapped for DNA. That provided a match to another DNA sample lifted from the tape that Wood used to frame the fake portrait. Article content Article content The iconic print was valued and insured for $20,000, but it had been damaged during either the theft, storage or shipping. So it ended up being sold for 5,292 British pounds (almost $10,000 CDN). After fees, Wood received just $4,503.85, according to his bank records. Article content Article content In a touching impact statement read into court by the prosecutor, Estrellita Karsh detailed why the portrait and the hotel had been so special. Her late husband kept a studio on the sixth floor in the early 1970s, and later in the early 1980s they moved into a suite at the landmark hotel. Article content 'It was not just where we lived and worked. It was our home and the wonderful staff became our family,' she wrote. Article content When the couple moved out of the hotel, they gifted a collection of historic prints to express their gratitude for the years of hospitality. The only stipulation was that the photographs needed to be displayed in the hotel. Article content She said it was fitting the Churchill portrait was displayed in the reading lounge, where she spent good times with her husband and friends. She said the Churchill portrait was especially meaningful because it had become one of the 'most iconic images in photography.' Article content
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
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 inch portrait of Sir Winston outside Canada's House of Commons, taken 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 who 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. Wood 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 in 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 Cassinelli 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.' Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
ABC News
27-05-2025
- Politics
- ABC News
Thief of iconic Winston Churchill portrait 'Roaring Lion' sentenced to jail
A Canadian man who stole an iconic portrait of a scowling Winston Churchill in a brazen international art heist has been sentenced to jail, according to local media. The portrait, known as Roaring Lion, vanished from the walls of Ottawa's Fairmont Château Laurier in 2022, sparking a multi-year police investigation. According to Canada's public broadcaster CBC, the man, Jeffrey Wood, pleaded guilty in March to forgery, theft, and trafficking property obtained by crime. He was sentenced to jail for almost two years on Monday, local time, at an Ottawa courthouse. CBC reported that Justice Robert Wadden told Wood that he was guilty of stealing a "cultural and historical" portrait that was a "point of national pride". The judge said Wood planned to use the money he received from selling the portrait to help his brother, according to the Toronto Star. "But his brother died that spring before Mr Wood received the proceeds from the sale," Mr Wadden said in his decision. The famed portrait was snapped by Armenian-born Canadian photographer Yousuf Karsh in 1941, just after Churchill gave a rousing wartime address to the Canadian parliament. The image is arguably the most recognised of Churchill and widely circulated, even appearing on the British five pound note. Mr Karsh gifted the photograph to the Fairmont Château Laurier hotel in 1998, where it hung in a reading room next to the main lobby. But in August 2022, staff member Bruno Lair noticed an issue with the frame — a wire where specialised locking bolts should have been. Ottowa police said a fake print, complete with a forged artist's signature, sat where the original once hung for several months before it was discovered. "At the beginning, we had nothing but a big hole in the wall where this portrait was supposed to be, and no leads," lead investigator Detective Akiva Geller said. Police said a piece of tape attached to the fake, torn with teeth, had retained traces of saliva, but no matches were found in the national DNA database initially. Mr Geller began scouring auction houses and online listings around the world. He discovered a suspicious Roaring Lion print, claiming to be from the Karsh estate, which was marked for sale at Sotheby's in London. Police said it had no history, the wrong frame, slight damage and was sold in May 2022, within the period of the theft. Meanwhile, the hotel called for people to submit photos from their visits to the venue. This allowed police to determine the real Roaring Lion had been stolen and replaced sometime between December 25, 2021, and January 6, 2022. To pinpoint the seller, Mr Geller initiated a "mutual legal assistance treaty" request. Almost a year later, a trove of documents confirmed the suspect's identity as Jeffrey Wood, a 43-year-old man from Powassan, Ontario. Police said Wood had fabricated a fake persona, attempting to sell the stolen portrait under a pseudonym. Mr Geller obtained a search warrant for Wood's storage unit, where he uncovered another Roaring Lion print and a toothbrush with a DNA match to the torn tape. Wood was arrested on April 25 last year. The buyer of the portrait, an Italian lawyer who was unaware it was stolen, worked with police to return it to Canada, where it was reinstalled at the hotel on November 15. Mr Karsh previously said making the portrait "changed his life", adding he captured Churchill's expression immediately after plucking a cigar out of the British leader's mouth. "By the time I got back to my camera, he looked so belligerent he could have devoured me," Mr Karsh said. "It was at that instant that I took the photograph."
