To the stunned dismay of all, someone had swapped out the original and replaced it with a cheap copy. Last August, a maintenance worker at the Chateau Laurier noticed that the frame on the wall in the hotel's sitting room didn't look quite right. Closer inspection quickly revealed the Churchill to be a fake. Part of the intrigue is the fact that no one even knew it was missing at first. "The first thing I thought," he told CBC at his home in Philadelphia, "was that it was an inside job." While police remain baffled by it, former FBI senior art theft investigator Robert Wittman has a theory. WATCH | Paul Hunter investigates the case of the missing Churchill: "He needs to come back where he belongs," Dumas said, personalizing what's been dubbed Canada's art heist of the century. "Every day, people come and say, 'Where was it? What happened? Did you find it?' "It's a part of the history … of Canada," said hotel general manager Geneviève Dumas. ![]() On this vacant and unrepaired wall, one of Canada's photographic masterpieces once hung proudly.īut a little over a year ago, Yousuf Karsh's famed portrait of former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill - a picture commonly known as The Roaring Lion - was stolen from the room, taken in plain sight. If you look closely, you'll see tiny holes in the wood panelling where special security bolts - which once held a frame firmly in place - have been neatly removed. Off to the side, down toward the bottom, sits an old brass nameplate: Winston Churchill 1941. In a spacious sitting room just off the lobby of the Chateau Laurier hotel in Ottawa, complete with oversized leather chairs and soft music, a spotlight shines on an empty wall. The group photo on the left is the original Karsh portrait. Sutherland called it as “an act of vandalism” and the portrait was described as “lost masterpiece”.Two photos of the famous Churchill portrait submitted by guests of the Chateau Laurier. The painting was supposed to hang in Westminster Abbey after Churchill’s death. Only sketches stayed and some of them are kept in the National Portrait Gallery in London. In the internet I found the information that his wife burnt the portrait after Winston's death (or it was burnt upon her order). In the movie he took the portrait home and burnt it there. He called it "a remarkable example of modern art" but he and his family hated that portrait. They could foresee the reaction of Churchill to that portrait.Ĭhurchill got a portrait for his 80th birthday at a large ceremony at Westminster Hall and he was very very disappointed and even shocked when he saw that. I think the Parliament members and Ministers ordered that portrait on purpose. They discussed a lot including Winston's art. Winston Churchill was posing to the artist and they had kinda connection. Sutherland asked how Winston wanted him to paint as a bulldog or a cherubim. The Parliament and the Cabinet of the Ministers ordered a portrait of Churchill from a famous artist Graham Vivian Sutherland who was also known as a very very realistic portraitist. And even being badly sick his main concern was his country but not himself.Īnyway, there were many people who wanted him to leave the post. He didn't see the appropriate candidate for that position. From the movie I understood that he hadn't resigned not because he had been greedy for power but because he had been such a patriot and had worried about his country. But as he was holding the post of the Prime - Minister being at his 80th, no doubts there were many people who wanted him to resign. ![]() Winston was an admired and honored person. After the movie I really want to know more about this outstanding person and to compare his biography and the facts described in the movie. ![]() All the facts I mention here are taken from the movie, so I don't pretend all of them are true. ![]() It was assumed that constant painting of that pond connected with the grief for his daughter.Īnother line impressed me in the movie - a story about the portrait of Winston. In the movie they say that Churchill painted about 20 paintings of the same pond near the house they bought after the death of one of their daughters. One episode impressed me much as I am fond of art.įirst of all, I learnt that Winston Churchill had painted. It is very good show and I highly recommend it. Recently I was watching a show "Crown" about the Queen Elizabeth. In Bulgakov's "Master and Margarita" there is a famous sentence: "Manuscripts don't burn" that means "Art is immortal".
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