An original print of a famous photograph of Winston Churchill has been found in Italy after going missing from an Ottawa hotel and replaced with a fake, the BBC reports.
The 1941 photo – known as “The Roaring Lion” – was taken by Canadian Armenian photographer Yousuf Karsh shortly after Churchill gave a wartime speech to Canada’s parliament.
On Wednesday, Ottawa police said the portrait had been found in the possession of a private buyer in Genoa, Italy, who was unaware that it had been stolen.
Officials also announced the arrest of a man from Powassan, Ontario, in connection with the theft and illicit sale.
The 43-year-old man, whose name is covered by a publication ban, faces several charges in Canada, including forgery, theft, trafficking and damage to property.
He was arrested on 25 April, investigators say, and appeared in court in Ottawa the following day.
The photograph shows Churchill, the British war-time prime minister, on Parliament Hill moments after Karsh famously took a cigar out of Churchill’s mouth.
“I held out an ashtray, but he would not dispose of it…I waited; he continued to chomp vigorously at his cigar. I waited,” Karsh later recalled.
“Then I stepped toward him and, without premeditation, but ever respectfully, I said ‘forgive me sir’ and plucked the cigar from his mouth.”
By the time Karsh returned to his camera, he wrote, Churchill looked “so belligerent he could have devoured me”.
