Stolen Churchill portrait on display again benefits from enhanced security

Nearly three years after his death, the portrait of Winston Churchill is officially back in Ottawa.

The Roaring lion was unveiled at a press conference Friday morning in the presence of the Ottawa Police Service, Mayor Mark Sutcliffe and the Deputy Minister of Canadian Heritage, Isabelle Mondou. The portrait will be accessible to the public from November 18.

For Mayor Mark Sutcliffe, the quest to find the portrait has not not been an easy pathbut rather worthy from a plot of a film.

The efforts of the Ottawa Police Service have been nothing short of extraordinary.

Hanging on its wall at the Château Laurier, the famous photo by Yousuf Karsh now benefits from reinforced security.

Anchoring systems have been added and I will have protection over the portrait to prevent this from happening againpromises the hotel’s general manager, Geneviève Dumas.

I also have six more cameras in [le salon]. He won’t come out of that wall, no more!

Even though the wall was empty, I still kept the plaque that mentioned Winston Churchill in the hope that we would come back with the painting. And that’s the case, I’m very happy about it.she adds.

Security has been increased, both for the portrait of Winston Churchill and for other portraits by Yousuf Karsh exhibited in the Reading Room, now renovated and renamed Zoe’s Lounge.

The hotel team noticed the disappearance of the portrait in August 2022, several months after the theft committed between December 25, 2021 and January 6, 2022.

Returned last September to Rome, the photo of the former British Prime Minister was sent to Ottawa, then kept in a secure warehouse.

Only the original frame will not be back at Château Laurier. However, it will look exactly like it, since its creation was entrusted to the original framer, Framed, of Ottawa. It is abouta very specific rosewood frame chosen by Estrellita Karsh [l’épouse de Yousuf Karsh]specifies Geneviève Dumas.

An event followed from Italy

I will not be in Ottawa, but I will obviously follow the ceremony online from Genoaindicates for his part the Italian lawyer Nicola Cassinelli.

A lover of modern art, the latter bought the portrait at an auction organized in London by the house Sotheby’s (New window) in the spring of 2022, without realizing that it had been stolen.

I am very happy to know that the portrait, which spent almost two years in my living room, will be again […] at home, in the precise place where its author would have wanted him to stayconcludes Nicolas Cassinelli.

If he had to decide to decline, this time, the invitation from Château Laurier for professional reasons, the Italian promised to come and admire the painting in Ottawa as soon as he could.

The Ottawa Police Service revealed last September the identity of the person who stole the portrait. Originally from Powassan, Ontario, 44-year-old Jeffrey Iain James Wood is charged with six offenses including theft, possession and trafficking in property obtained by crime. He will appear in Ottawa on March 13 and 14, according to his lawyer Lawrence Greenspon.