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00:00This is where the original Churchill portrait was hanging.
00:25When we discovered the fake, it was hanging from the left hook by an iron wire.
00:35So once we saw that, it became really obvious.
00:39We should have noticed before, but that's when we knew we had a problem.
00:43This is quite an incredible story.
00:46A portrait of Winston Churchill on display at the Chateau Laurier Hotel was allegedly
00:51stolen.
00:53The Canadian police are investigating a theft that's captured the attention of art lovers
00:57worldwide.
00:58It's as if the Mona Lisa had been taken from the Louvre in Paris and replaced by a fake.
01:06This iconic photo bears witness to history.
01:11I asked him to remove the cigar.
01:13He looked at me so belligerently that he could have devoured me.
01:17I clicked.
01:18So this is the piece that was actually left behind.
01:24This is the kind of thing that might occur in Paris, New York or London.
01:30But downtown Ottawa?
01:31That just can't be.
01:33Who knew there would be time when no one was going through?
01:38Who would know that?
01:39They knew when they could take it.
01:41They knew where the cameras were within the room and not within the room.
01:44So there's always someone on the inside involved in these types of crimes.
01:48Someone somewhere knows where that Winston Churchill portrait is.
01:55who knew there was in Paris.
01:56They knew where they were.
01:57Who knew there was a crime.
01:58They knew where they were.
01:59What did they do?
02:00Working in Ottawa had always been my goal.
02:22It's the nation's capital, and there's a certain magic to the Chateau Laurier with its 112 years of history.
02:28So I've always been drawn to this history, and I wanted to be general manager here.
02:40One morning, my maintenance director and his crew came to see me and said that the Winston Churchill portrait wasn't right, as if someone had replaced the frame.
02:52And my reaction was, well, that just can't be.
02:55So we headed over to the reading lounge.
03:03It's supposed to be mounted on the wall with screws, but it was just hanging by a wire.
03:09Usually these portraits are secured by four bolts.
03:12And we realized the frame was not like the others.
03:23Once we saw that, it became really obvious.
03:26We should have noticed before, but that's when we knew we had a problem.
03:30I called the Karsh estate, and I let them know that the Winston Churchill portrait had been replaced by a fake.
03:45I sent a picture of the signature, and within two seconds, they confirmed it was a fake.
03:51No doubt about it.
04:00So we called the police, who opened a case file and began their investigation.
04:03Karsh is a very well-known photographer, but his most famous portrait is the one he did of Winston Churchill.
04:20This is something I was very familiar with.
04:25In fact, I remember it from my history classes.
04:28So when I came here and saw the actual portrait in the Chateau Laurier, that was something very special.
04:34Michel Prevot, I'm the president of the Utewe Historical Society and former chief archivist of the University of Ottawa.
04:46Yusuf Karsh and the city of Ottawa share a very strong connection.
04:52He was born in 1908, not in Canada, but in Turkey, as an Armenian.
04:59In 1932, he decided to settle in Ottawa.
05:04Karsh had his photography studio in the Chateau Laurier, but the Chateau was also his home.
05:13He lived there.
05:17He became so famous that everyone, celebrities, royalty, heads of state,
05:26in fact, everyone who came to Ottawa would stop by the Karsh studio at the Chateau Laurier.
05:33This is where Karsh and his wife, Estrelita, lived for over 18 years.
05:43While his studio was on the sixth floor.
05:45This is truly a reflection of Mr. Karsh, with his cameras and some of his portraits, Hemingway.
05:54You can feel his presence here.
06:01During the renovations, Mr. Karsh's wife, Estrelita, selected every item.
06:08We like this, so she really wanted us to keep this original refrigerator, which is indeed a piece of history.
06:15Colors were very important to her, so she came and chose the mall.
06:26Now this suite is rented out to celebrities, heads of state.
06:29Many people want to stay here.
06:32And there she is, Estrelita, Mr. Karsh's wife.
06:35So much history.
06:56This was his studio in 1982, 83.
07:01He spoke French and English very well.
07:05I think I spoke to him in English, then we switched to French, you know.
07:10Just like in Ottawa's lower town, where both languages were spoken.
07:14Then we chatted a bit.
07:17Then I took his picture.
07:18In front of the Churchill.
07:19For everyone who studied or wanted to do portrait photography, Karsh was truly one of the best.
07:30His portraits were exceptional.
07:33Several elements stand out for me when I see a Karsh portrait.
07:38He often used a backlight to play with contrasts and shadings.
07:43So he would place a light to the side, like you were doing with me today.
07:54He was able to bring out certain details.
07:57Because the rooms were not always air conditioned.
08:01So he would take advantage of that with the hot lights.
08:05Sweat would play a role in how his portraits turned out.
08:08I feel and hope that the soul behind the face will shine through.
08:18It is what I would call a person's internal strength.
08:23My name is Robert Whitman.
08:49I'm a retired FBI agent.
08:51I was the senior investigator and founder of the FBI's national art crime team.
08:57Throughout my career at the FBI, 20 years, I recovered more than $300 million worth of stolen art and cultural property.
09:04From maybe 22 countries.
09:07And I think we've got a lead on a couple of them.
09:09We're working on that right now to try to get the evidence to be able to recover those.
09:14Yeah, yeah, we'll meet them all.
09:16And hopefully we'll get some law enforcement involved and get this job done.
09:21Art crime is an evolving situation.
09:24Back when I started, it was not as prevalent as it is today.
09:30And the reason for that is because of the values.
09:32The values of art have expanded and exploded.
09:36You know, just a few years ago, a painting by da Vinci sold for $450 million.
09:42Think about that.
09:43$450 million.
09:44So you can see the value has created the situation.
09:49As far as the fabulous Churchill photograph, the roaring lion done by Karsh, I think there's probably one or two, maybe two reasons that could be the motives for stealing the photograph.
10:02The first one would be simply money.
10:04Someone would know the value of it.
10:07Think they could somehow sell it.
10:09And as a result, try to make money off of it.
10:12The second reason could be that someone coveted it.
10:15That's the type of thing that a collector would love to have within his own, you know, collection.
10:20There's going to be a lot of false leads that come in.
10:27In fact, our office here in the United States, we've had two so far individuals come forward and talk to us about having the photograph.
10:34In each case, it wasn't the correct one.
10:37One was a very, very old original, as you could call it, but it wasn't the right size.
10:42So that's what we have to look for.
10:44And that's what the police are going to be following up on.
10:47They're going to get a lot of calls, a lot of false leads, but you have to follow up on all of them because you don't know which one's going to break the case.
10:56It was August 22, 2022, when we realized the original photo had been replaced by a fake.
11:03Our task was then to try and figure out the date of the robbery.
11:07And with that information, check the surveillance footage to assist with the investigation.
11:11So in order to pinpoint the date, we asked people, if you have taken a picture with a Churchill photo in it, please send it to us.
11:21We're asking the public to help us.
11:23The dates really will help to narrow down our searches, but I'm also hoping that somebody in the public saw, heard, or know anything about this.
11:32This is very precious to us, for the Chateau Laurier, but also for the Karsh family.
11:39This photo belongs to the Chateau Laurier.
11:41It belongs to Ottawa.
11:43And something very special occurred, especially with the Ottawa community and the people who tried to help us.
11:49The number of pictures we received, that was so appreciated.
11:53And it showed us just how much people care about this.
11:59This is Alexander, who traveled to Ottawa in 2015.
12:03The frame reaches below the molding.
12:06And that's one way of telling between the original and the fake.
12:12And here, more visitors who sent us their family photos.
12:16Again, here, the frame reaches below the molding, so it's the original.
12:20And then we get to the date of this picture, sent to us by your colleague from CBC, Paul Hunter.
12:36I had seen that photo so many times.
12:40Every time I go to the hotel, I would see that photo.
12:43My mom grew up in the United Kingdom.
12:48And when she was a young woman in the 1950s, Winston Churchill was her member of parliament.
12:55And she volunteered to help out on his campaign when he was running for re-election in the 1950s.
13:01And he won.
13:03And he wrote her a letter of thanks.
13:06Dear Anne Clayton, we won. Thank you for your help.
13:09Signed, Winston S. Churchill.
13:11And she kept that letter.
13:13And we put it in a double-matte frame and a picture of Churchill over here.
13:19And the picture is, of course, the Karsh.
13:27That photo is in my heart for that reason.
13:32My mom died a few years back.
13:39But every time I go to Ottawa, I'll go into the chateau to find the Churchill.
13:45And I'll stand there and I'll think about her and I'll think about Churchill.
13:48And as often as not, I'll take a picture.
13:51No reason.
13:52Just because this is my mom.
13:53And this is my little moment with her.
13:57And I do that every time I'm in Ottawa.
14:01Because, because it's my mom.
14:07You know?
14:07So I work in Washington, but I had gone back to Ottawa to work for a couple of months.
14:15December 21, January 22.
14:19This is when the Omicron variant kind of exploded.
14:22And there was another lockdown.
14:24And Ottawa, in the middle of winter, in the middle of this latest outbreak and lockdown, was a ghost town.
14:39There was nobody on the streets.
14:41There was nobody on the sidewalks.
14:43It was shut down.
14:45There was an outbreak in the hotel itself, in the restaurant.
14:53So they shut the restaurant.
14:54They shut the bar.
14:56And I'm walking to the hotel.
14:58And it's about 9 o'clock at night.
15:00There's nobody here.
15:02Like, am I the only guest in this hotel?
15:04Like, I think I am.
15:06I look over at the front desk and there's nobody there.
15:08Like, nobody in the lobby of this giant hotel.
15:13Nobody.
15:14Totally empty.
15:16There's the reading room through there.
15:18So then I took the shot.
15:19I went through.
15:22And there it is.
15:23There's the fake.
15:25On the wall.
15:27The summer of 2022, a friend of mine has written and said,
15:31Hey, have you heard about the karsh at the chateau?
15:34And I'm like, what?
15:35Right?
15:35And I read the email.
15:36And it's been stolen.
15:37And a fake has been put in place.
15:40And I'm like, what on God's green earth has happened?
15:43And you've got to be like an art heist for real.
15:45And not only an art heist, but of that shot, of that photo that I'd gone to so many times.
15:52That meant so much to me personally.
15:53I thought, well, you know, and I look through my phone and I find the photo that I took in January.
15:59So I sent it to the hotel manager.
16:05This photo is from January 6th, 2022.
16:10The frame hangs above the wood molding, so it's the fake.
16:14It's not even properly centered.
16:15Before this January 6th image, the last photo of the original dates back to December 25th, 2021.
16:25Even from this distance, you can see the frame reaches below the molding, so it's the original.
16:31So there's a period of about 10 days between the two dates, which we figured out thanks to Paul Hunter's picture.
16:36Lots of people were surprised we hadn't noticed what seemed so obvious.
16:53But when you see the same thing every day, even if it's a bit off kilter, you don't notice the details.
17:01You just see the picture.
17:02It wasn't that obvious.
17:04Now that I'm aware of it, of course it's obvious.
17:13And I didn't notice anything.
17:16It looked close enough.
17:18That's the beauty of putting a fake in place.
17:21Had somebody gone in and just ripped it off the wall and run out the door, right?
17:24A, the police, somebody would have noticed it's missing.
17:27The police would have been called.
17:28They would have looked for footprints in the snow.
17:30I don't know, right?
17:31But the beauty of putting a fake in place that was just good enough to fool people who've seen it dozens of times, that's how they got it.
17:42Today we're at the Ottawa Police Evidence Control Area, where they keep all of the evidence for different crimes throughout the area.
17:55They have entire warehouses the size of Costco with evidence from different crimes.
18:01So this is the piece that was actually left behind when the original photograph was stolen?
18:15It was, yeah.
18:16The technique of the theft took a lot of work.
18:23They replaced it with a fake, you know, with a copy, a reproduction.
18:27And that was in order to buy time.
18:29So they had that planned out as well.
18:31So the forensic identification unit is looking for different things.
18:36They're looking for fingerprints.
18:38They're looking for trace evidence.
18:40Pairs and fibers.
18:41Yeah.
18:41So you'll notice, obviously, the discoloration of the photo.
18:45Yeah.
18:45I'm familiar with that.
18:49Yeah.
18:51It feels like it's just a cardboard paper, which, again, is nothing that the cars would have ever used.
18:58Now, that's interesting.
19:03The signature appears not to be hand-done.
19:08It looks like it's a printed signature that was done when the print was created.
19:12Because when you see handwritten signatures, there's never going to be a perfectly opaque signature.
19:17You're going to have spots where the ink doesn't go into the paper.
19:22So the fact that they left a reproduction in its place could be helpful in the investigation.
19:26And on top of that, you know, the picture came from somewhere.
19:29It's a photograph.
19:30And it's a copy of the original.
19:32So someone's selling those.
19:34That's another place to look to see who is actually selling those types of photographs.
19:40In this case, there's a lot of evidence here.
19:43It could have left fingerprints on tape.
19:45That's an investigator's happy day when he sees actual tape on a piece of evidence.
19:52So we'll see.
19:52So this is the...
20:22The scene of the crime, so to speak.
20:25This is where the photograph was hanging for many, many years.
20:29And we can see, these are the hooks, where the hooks were, the screws that went into these holes.
20:42And I can see that these holes were not damaged.
20:45There's no material missing from the hole.
20:48There's nothing coming out.
20:49So walking around, you can see in this room, there are many portraits of famous individuals that were created by Yusef Karsh.
21:01Back in this corner is Albert Einstein.
21:04It's very well anchored into the wall, with very little space between the frame itself, which is very thick and heavy, and the actual wall itself.
21:15So all four anchors are bringing this into the wall, which means in order to be able to take this out, to basically steal it, you'd have to have special tools that would allow for those anchors to be removed.
21:28A special security screwdriver that fits only those anchors.
21:33That's a definite clue.
21:34I think the timing of the theft of the Karsh photograph was a result of a perfect storm, and a perfect situation.
21:47You had a pandemic.
21:49The place was closed.
21:51Not many people were in there.
21:52And as a result, individuals who had inside knowledge of that knew when there would be people on board, people who were working at the desk.
22:01As a result, also, they also knew that, you know, they had some background, some basis to be able to get that off the wall.
22:08So I think it was a perfect situation to take the piece at that point.
22:22The Karsh and the National Archives had a long relationship starting in the 1960s.
22:42We started to acquire some of his portraits of well-known Canadians.
22:47He was a very proud Canadian.
22:50He loved that he was able to come to Canada as a refugee in the 1920s.
22:57And the country welcomed him, and he was able to have such an amazing, successful career.
23:03We have about 350,000 photographic items.
23:07It's a massive collection, and it really represents his entire career.
23:11To put that in perspective, he did more than 15,000 portrait sittings over his career, which spanned 60 years.
23:20Yeah, I built some of the better-known portraits of well-known people.
23:30They're all well-known.
23:31Yes, exactly.
23:32So here we have Andy Warhol with his paintbrush, of course.
23:38It's a really good example of how Karsh used lighting.
23:46There's also a light coming in on the back there, which may be coming this way, unless if it's over his shoulder.
23:53The highlight, unless it was high-lit by his technician there.
23:56It looks like a smaller size than the one in the Chateau Laurier, and with the same unhappy face, determined face, let's say.
24:14Yeah, yeah.
24:15This may be the most well-known portrait of the century.
24:18During World War II, the old lion came to Canada, to Ottawa, to thank Canadians for being faithful allies.
24:36And especially to make sure Canada would continue to support the United Kingdom and the Allies.
24:46We shall never descend to the German and Japanese level.
24:51But if anybody likes to play rough, we can play rough too.
24:56Churchill pointedly knew that by referring to France's defeat, he could also appeal to Canada's French-speaking populations.
25:06The French nation is rising again.
25:10Hope is springing up again.
25:18Karsh was very meticulous.
25:21And everything had been carefully planned by him.
25:24He had set up right in the office of the Speaker of the House.
25:31Of course, Churchill had his perennial cigar.
25:36But Karsh did not want a photo with a cigar.
25:41So I asked him, will you remove the cigar?
25:45He wouldn't hear of it.
25:46So with infinite respect and without any premeditation whatsoever, I said, forgive me, sir.
25:51By the time I got back, four feet to my camera, he looked at me so belligerently that he could have devoured me.
25:59I clicked.
26:03Churchill said to him, you may take another one.
26:07Maybe he wanted one with a smile.
26:10So there was one serious one and one smiling.
26:13But I have a feeling Karsh knew which one he wanted.
26:20That photo was to become Churchill's iconic image.
26:26Because through this representation of the old lion ready for battle, we really get the essence of Churchill.
26:34Churchill.
26:44Art theft happens every single day.
26:47I get reports at my desk at 5 a.m. in the morning from everywhere.
26:52My name is Christopher A. Marinello.
26:54I am a lawyer and the founder and CEO of Art Recovery International.
26:59Our specialty is recovering stolen, looted and missing works of art.
27:03I was very familiar with this portrait of Churchill before it was stolen.
27:09It's an iconic image of Winston Churchill.
27:11In fact, it's on the five-pound note.
27:13Well, there's a reason that this portrait was chosen to be placed on the five-pound note by British banks.
27:27And this Karsh portrait personifies leadership.
27:35Winston Churchill was the right leader at the right time.
27:40The British people were demoralized by the German blitz towards the end of the war.
27:48It felt like it was hopeless.
27:50And Winston Churchill helped lead the Allies to victory and to lead the population to feel that we could overcome and win this thing.
28:01And this particular Karsh portrait captures that resolve that we're going to pull through and win this thing together.
28:12So, that's the negative from the famous photograph.
28:21And then, actually, one other thing that came in with that is a mask that he used for printing.
28:29So, it's a little bit difficult to see, maybe, but you can kind of see where he did some of the shading.
28:37He wanted to highlight that hand a bit, right?
28:42The left hand, frame right.
28:45And there was work done on the buttons.
28:48Actually, touch-ups were done right on the negative by his technician.
28:52Now, that's precision work.
28:54Very subtle.
28:55Yeah.
28:55So, the estate, because Karsh is no longer here and because he was so involved in the printing process, the developing process, you know, everything went through his hands to make sure it was okay.
29:10Then, now that he's gone, they don't print new prints anymore.
29:15It means that, you know, if you do have an original Karsh print, you know that it was supervised by Karsh when it was developed and printed.
29:28This photo was done from the original negative, which is something that Karsh rarely did.
29:37Hence, the value.
29:38Just like the original in a museum has the highest value.
29:42Here, of course, we're talking about a photo, not a painting.
29:48So, there are, indeed, a few copies of the original that were made from the negatives.
29:56For instance, Ottawa's Rideau Club has a copy.
30:00And so does the city of Ottawa.
30:02But these photos, those, shall we say, pristine, flawless copies made from the master image are quite rare.
30:14Well, I know there's many theories about perhaps a Winston Churchill fan wanting this on their own wall.
30:28But in my view, this was done for monetary gain.
30:33I believe that whoever stole this picture knew it had value and had intended to sell it.
30:40Quebec has different laws than the rest of Canada.
30:48And it's a very, that particular jurisdiction is the bane of my existence in recovering artwork in Canada.
30:55Because you can acquire title to stolen artworks in that particular province.
31:02And I've had cases previously where good faith buyers have said,
31:07Well, I'm, you know, I'm entitled to keep it and I need, I will settle with you rather than simply return what I know is a stolen object.
31:25In every theft investigation, there are certain forensic steps that you want to take.
31:40You also want to then go out and talk to all of the individuals in the area, the different galleries, the museums,
31:46anyone that has sales of those types of art, artifacts, and make them know that this thing is out there so that you'd actually have now a workforce,
31:55you know, in the industry that's actually doing investigation for you.
32:04I'd be looking at maybe who sells the specific tools that were used to take those security bolts off the wall.
32:13If it's on Amazon or something of that nature, who bought one in the general vicinity within the time frame of when that was taken?
32:20These are all leads that could be followed.
32:26I'd be putting out a word of a reward.
32:30I had a case involving a painting that was stolen in route from the Toledo Museum of Art to the Guggenheim in New York.
32:36And we publicized a reward offer, and within a few days, we got a call from the actual thief stating that he had found the painting and wanted to return it for the reward.
32:47So that generated that lead.
32:49Well, rewards are not a bad thing.
32:52You know, we see a lot of our insurance companies will encourage people to come forward and cooperate.
32:59You know, it's a shame that, you know, you find a wallet on the ground, most people will pick it up and try to give it back to the person who lost it.
33:07Well, not everyone does that.
33:09Some people will open the wallet and take the money out and then return the wallet.
33:14Or some people will only return the wallet if they get paid a finder's fee.
33:19And some people won't return the wallet at all and go and start using the credit cards.
33:22So I see those kinds of people all the time.
33:25It's, that's just humanity.
33:29There's a very big difference between the value, between the black market and the open market.
33:45If you have an open market, you know, a painting that's authentic, has good provenance, good title, could sell for hundreds of millions of dollars.
33:50That same painting on the black market, since it has no good provenance, no history, and it's not, it doesn't have good title.
33:58Sometimes as low as 10% of what the value would be.
34:02I had a case involving a Rembrandt self-portrait that was stolen at gunpoint from the Swedish National Museum in Stockholm.
34:09The painting was valued at $35 million.
34:12My offer to buy it was $250,000.
34:14So you can see, it's a very small percentage of the actual value.
34:19And in the end, I was the only one, and I was a policeman.
34:22So it never did get sold.
34:24Criminals who steal art, they're better criminals, they're better thieves than the art businessmen.
34:37They don't know what to do with it.
34:38The real art in an art heist, it isn't the stealing, it's the selling.
34:43What are you going to do with this piece that everybody knows is gone, everybody knows is illegal?
34:48There's not much you can do with it.
34:49So they steal it, they hold on to it, but in the end, it sits in a warehouse or in somebody's, in cases I've had where somebody's kitchen behind their refrigerator being hidden because they can't move it.
35:03People who buy stolen art are foolish people who will take a chance with their money.
35:09They won't ask questions, they'll look the other way, they believe that they know better, they can monetize it, make a profit.
35:19They will inevitably lose their entire investment, so to speak.
35:25But there are people who will take that chance.
35:29At auction, this portrait could be worth about $50,000 American dollars.
35:34It could be worth $20,000, $25,000, maybe more.
35:37Karsh prints are always of value, but the Churchill itself is special.
35:45Most people are interested in the monetary value.
35:50For historians or archivists, the uniqueness, the iconic value of this portrait is what really matters.
35:59This photo is part of our history, of our culture.
36:02It bears witness to our collective memory, and it connects us to one of the most prominent figures of World War II, Sir Winston Churchill.
36:13And because it's been on the covers of magazines, and because we have seen it everywhere, on stamps and banknotes, it has taken on greater and greater value.
36:29And so, for history, and for historians, its value is priceless.
36:37It's as if the Mona Lisa had just been stolen from the Louvre, and nobody had noticed.
36:48And we're talking several months here, which is even more incredible.
36:53My first reaction was, this is a hoax, that's just not possible.
37:00My first thought was, they'll review all of the videos from the surveillance cameras, which are there for security.
37:08I also thought that it might have been an inside job, you know, someone who works there, who knew what went on, and at what time.
37:25Big clue, the hotel was empty, hardly any guests.
37:30Inside job, people who knew the hotel was empty, right?
37:35Who was there then, who had access, who knew about the special bolts, who knew there would be time when no one was going through?
37:48Who would know that?
37:5190% of the thefts from museums and institutions in the U.S. had some inside component.
37:58In other words, someone who either worked there, or a docent who went and knew the layout of the museums.
38:05So there's always someone on the inside involved in these types of crimes.
38:10I could never think that someone from my staff could do such a thing.
38:23If we have to provide proof to the contrary, the police will do so, but I really don't believe that this is what happened.
38:29Chateau Laurier is our palace, if you will.
38:45It's a place of history and wealth.
38:48Every part of it has something unique.
38:51The details, the gold leaf gilding.
38:54It's over a century of history, and with so many great guests.
38:59Senators, ambassadors, foreign heads of state, prime ministers, actors, celebrities, the Queen of England, Lady Diana.
39:11This hotel is a museum in itself, and it's so beautiful.
39:14I contacted specialized art galleries for advice on the best way to protect artwork.
39:26And now each portrait is equipped with an alarm system.
39:31Previously, we had wide-angle cameras that did not provide the right details for the investigation.
39:38Now there are cameras everywhere.
39:44There are many works of art at the hotel.
39:48Portraits with the Queen and other distinguished guests.
39:51We wanted to make sure they were safe, and this is by no means a challenge, so please don't try anything.
39:57But now all the artwork is well protected.
40:02In this story that is more like fiction than fact,
40:06there's still no clue as to who stole the famous Winston Churchill portrait from the Chateau Laurier.
40:11Artwork comes back, unless it's destroyed, and I've seen that happen, and that's a terrible shame.
40:20That's a loss of actual cultural heritage.
40:22It's a loss for everyone.
40:24But many, many times, I'd say maybe 90% of the time, it does come back.
40:29It outlives us.
40:30The happiest day in this chronology would be for me to go back to the Chateau and take another photo of the original,
40:38to go with all my others from years gone by, just to see it back on the wall, because that's where it belongs.
40:45That's where it ought to be.
40:46That's where it should be.
40:48Maybe one day.
40:49The Roaring Lion, the iconic photo of Winston Churchill, has been located more than two years after it was stolen.
41:05Ottawa police, who, with aid from authorities in Europe, went on a global hunt for the original,
41:10eventually discovering it had been bought by a man in Genoa, Italy.
41:14I was in my office. Detective Geller called me, said, Geneviève, we've got the portrait.
41:21And he said, it's in Italy, Genoa, and we're going to get it.
41:30As the representative of the hotel, I had to go to Rome to pick it up at the Canadian embassy,
41:37because they had to give us the portrait on Canadian land.
41:41There it is.
41:42What's going through your mind?
41:43Paul Hunter was at the ceremony in Rome as well, but I was so happy to see Paul.
41:48It's a bit of our story.
41:50We're bringing it back.
41:53It's exciting.
41:54I've never known you to be speechless.
41:58Much remains unclear.
42:00Ottawa police have charged a 43-year-old Ontario man with a number of offences, including theft.
42:06I'm looking forward to put the pieces of the puzzle together.
42:09We know when it was changed for a fake, and we know when we got it back.
42:15But how did it happen?
42:16I want to know.
42:25I'm so proud that the portrait is back.
42:28But also, most importantly, my employees were the first suspect, and now we know for a fact that they're not.
42:37Since last May, the Reading Lounge has been under renovation.
42:41We're building a bar and a restaurant, so when Churchill is back on the wall, it's back in a new home.
42:53Winston Churchill is where it belongs, at the Chateau Laurier, where Mr. Karsh wanted it to be.
42:58He donated, on a permanent loan, these portraits, as long as they were on the walls of Chateau Laurier, for the world to enjoy.
43:06So, he's back home for everybody to see.
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