Stolen ‘iconic’ Winston Churchill print found in Italy

‘The Roaring Lion’ portrait of a 67-year-old Winston Churchill taken in 1941 by Armenian-Canadian photographer Yousuf Karsh is one of the most enduring photographs of Britain’s Prime Minister during the Second World War.

For years, an original print has been missing of Karsh’s photograph, taken after Churchill gave his “Some chicken, some neck” speech to the Canadian parliament.

Now, Ottawa police have confirmed that the portrait has been found in Italy. A person from Genoa had purchased the print in a Sotheby’s auction, unaware that it had been stolen.

While the current owner of the print has only just now been confirmed, Canada’s police arrested a man from Powassan, Ontario in connection with the theft and sale of the print on 25 April, earlier this year.

The 43-year-old appeared in court on the 26 April and faces charges of forgery, theft, trafficking and damage to property.

In 1998, an original signed print was given to the Fairmont Château Laurier hotel in Ottawa, where Karsh had lived with his wife Estrellita.

On August 19, 2022, a staff member at the hotel realised that the print had been switched with a copy. Police traced the theft back to sometime between Christmas 2021 and 6 January 2022, during Canada’s Covid lockdowns.

After this, the photo was auctioned in London to a private Italian buyer. “Both of whom were unaware that the piece was stolen,” the police said.

Canadian investigators identified the buyer through open-source research and public tip-offs. The print will be handed back to Canadian police in Rome this month by the unidentified buyer.

‘The Roaring Lion’ is considered one of the most iconic images of the 20th century and launched Karsh’s career. It appeared on a 1945 cover of Life magazine, one of the first prints hangs on the walls of the Speaker’s Chamber of the Speaker of the House of Commons of Canada, and it has appeared on the Bank of England’s £5 note since 2016.

Karsh’s iconic print is defined by Churchill’s unmistakable scowl, the result of the photographer snatching the Prime Minister’s cigar from his hands seconds before the shot. “By the time I got back to my camera,” Karsh said, “he looked so belligerent he could have devoured me.”

“My portrait of Winston Churchill changed my life. I knew after I had taken it that it was an important picture, but I could hardly have dreamed that it would become one of the most widely reproduced images in the history of photography,” Karsh later said.