The man accused of stealing one of many world’s most well-known portraits from Ottawa’s Château Laurier lodge and switching it for a faux throughout a COVID-19 lockdown has pleaded responsible to 3 of the six prices towards him.
The lodge was given the print of The Roaring Lion, a portrait of former British prime minister Winston Churchill, in 1998 by celebrated photographer and longtime lodge resident Yousuf Karsh.
Someday round New Yr’s Day 2022, whereas Ottawa was in a COVID-19 lockdown, the portrait was stolen and replaced with a framed fake — regardless of being affixed with particular bolts that required particular data and distinctive instruments to unfasten.
The crime went unnoticed till the next August, when a lodge employees member seen one thing amiss with the portrait.
The theft made international headlines and led Ottawa police investigators on a hunt spanning a number of nations and two continents. They lastly decided the portrait had been purchased through a London auction house by a person in Genoa, Italy.
The client had no concept he’d acquired a cherished piece of Canadian historical past — not to mention a stolen one — and when contacted by police, he quickly agreed to return it.
WATCH | Returned portrait unveiled once more with additional safety:
A portrait of Winston Churchill by acclaimed Canadian photographer Yousuf Karsh — which was swiped, changed with a replica, reported stolen six months later and recovered in Italy 18 months after that — has been returned to the wall of the Fairmont Château Laurier lodge in Ottawa.
After they revealed final September that the portrait had been discovered, Ottawa police additionally introduced six prices towards Jeffrey Wooden.
The 44-year-old from Powassan, a municipality of about 3,300 folks south of North Bay, pleaded responsible Friday to forgery, theft over $5,000 and trafficking property obtained by crime.
Extra to return.
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