![]() He lived for 18 years in one of Fairmont Château Laurier hotel rooms, and six of his photos were permanently on exhibit in one of the hotel lounges. “The Roaring Lion” portrait brought Yousuf Karsh international renown. In that instant, I took the photograph,” said Karsh. “He looked so belligerent he could have devoured me. According to Karsh, when Churchill refused to part with his trademark cigar, he leaned over the camera and plucked the cigar from his mouth. On that winter day in 1941, Winston Churchill thanked all Canadians for their dedication to “the total and final extirpation of the Hitler tyranny, of the Japanese frenzy, and the Mussolini flop.” After the speech, Churchill agreed to have his photograph taken in another room of the legislative chamber. The iconic photo of the British prime minister was taken by Yousuf Karsh (1908-2002), an Armenian-born Canadian photographer renowned for his portraits of 20th century luminaries, including Albert Einstein, Queen Elizabeth II, Pablo Picasso, Grace Kelly, Martin Luther King, Helen Keller and Mohamed Ali. The image was featured on the cover of Life magazine in May 1945, and has been on the back of England’s £5 note since 2016. The photograph was taken on December 30, 1941, after Winston Churchill’s speech to the Canadian parliament. “The thief knew what he was doing,” said Dumas. The hotel’s general manager, Geneviève Dumas, told The Canadian Press that special tools are needed to detach the frame from the wall, so it must have been stolen by a professional. But photos taken 12 days later showed the copy hanging in its place. When the hotel and police appealed to the public for help, several personal photos taken by hotel guests showed that the original was there on December 25, 2021. The portrait’s value has been estimated at US$100,000, although a price is difficult to establish due to its historical significance. Experts later determined that the photographer Yousuf Karsh’s signature on the portrait copy was a forgery. On August 19, hotel employees noticed that it had been replaced by a copy – the portrait frame did not match the other five portraits in the hotel lounge. Photographed in 1941 and dubbed “The Roaring Lion,” it had been on display since 1998 in the Fairmont Château Laurier hotel in downtown Ottawa (Canada). Police are investigating the theft of one of the most famous portraits of Winston Churchill. As for why the print was stolen, the Smithsonian article suggests one motive, pointing out that another signed original was sold at auction in 2020 for $62,500.The Winston Churchill portrait that was stolen from a hotel in Canada. An investigation suggests that the Churchill portrait was removed between Decemand January 6, 2022. The hotel has since taken down several other photos by Karsh. They sent an image of the signature on the back of the print to the director of Yousuf Karsh’s estate, who confirmed that the signature was a fake. Earlier this month, a hotel employee discovered a discrepancy between the framed photo and the frames used elsewhere in the hotel. The print had hung in the hotel for the last 24 years, according to The Guardian. Yousuf Karsh took the photograph of Churchill after he had given a speech in the city, and took Churchill’s cigar away from him before taking the famed photograph - thus capturing a world leader at his most furious. As Smithsonian Magazine reports, the hotel was also home to an original print of a 1941 portrait of Winston Churchill, dubbed the Roaring Lion. But when it comes to questions of theft, there’s one sizable downside to photographs - it can be a lot easier to substitute a reproduction for a valuable photo than it would be for a painting.Ĭonsider the saga of the Fairmont Château Laurier, a visually striking hotel located in Ottawa. For advocates for photography’s importance as an artistic medium, that’s good news indeed. Some photographs of public figures have, over time, become as recognizable as famous paintings or sculptures. ![]()
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