Canada: Since it is revealed that the famous portrait of Winston Churchill that had been hanging for decades in an Ottawa hotel was replaced with a fake one, a heist has gripped the Canadian capital.
Staff at the Fairmont Chateau Laurier Hotel in Ottawa called police last Friday after finding that the portrait of the late British prime minister had been misinterpreted and did not match other portraits by the late Canadian photographer Yusuf Karsh. who was born in Armenia.
After the wartime leader addressed the Canadian legislature in 1941, Karsh took the picture "Roaring Lion", which had come to represent the British resistance during World War II.
Former hotel guests have shared photos of the portrait over the years, which has helped narrow the range of possible disappearance dates from December 25, 2021 to January 6, 2022, as rumors of theft swirl.
"It is likely that someone wanted to sell or buy that picture for their personal collection. I don't know," Genevieve Dumas, general manager of the Fairmont Chateau Laurier, told Agence France-Presse.
Dumas claimed that the picture is priceless, despite being valued at $100,000 in the United States.
This is very important for us. It's a piece of Karsh history, the hotel's history, and wartime Canadian and British history, she said.
We are deeply saddened by this gross theft, he continued. "We just want to get it back,"
After escaping the Armenian genocide and settling in Canada, Karsh and his wife stayed at the hotel for 18 years. Until 1992, he also operated a studio there.
The Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., Albert Einstein, Ernest Hemingway and Queen Elizabeth were among his other portrait subjects.
According to historical accounts, Churchill reportedly smiled when Karsh took a cigar out of his mouth just before taking his picture. The image of Churchill is arguably his most famous, and is widely used – it also appears on the five-pound note issued by the British government.
In an excerpt from his website, Karsh said, "After I took it I knew it was an important photograph, but I could hardly have dreamed it would become one of the most widely reproduced images in the history of photography." Will go
According to historical accounts, Churchill reportedly smiled when Karsh took a cigar out of his mouth just before taking his picture. The image of Churchill is arguably his most famous, and is widely used – it also appears on the five-pound note issued by the British government.
In an excerpt from his website, Karsh said, "After I took it I knew it was an important photograph, but I could hardly have dreamed it would become one of the most widely reproduced images in the history of photography." Will go
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