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2d ago

Thief of Churchill’s ‘Roaring Lion’ Portrait Sentenced to Two Years Less a Day

Wood was handed the maximum provincial term following a transnational investigation that recovered the stolen Churchill image in Italy

Jeffrey Wood, centre, arrives at the Ottawa courthouse alongside Lawrence Greenspon, right, and Hannah Drennan for a hearing in Ottawa, on Friday, March 14, 2025.
A 2009 photo of Estrellita Karsh in front of Yousuf Karsh’s famed “Roaring Lion” portrait of Winston Churchill, taken in Ottawa in 1941.
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Overview

  • In March, Jeffrey Wood pleaded guilty to theft, forgery and trafficking charges for stealing Yousuf Karsh’s 1941 portrait of Winston Churchill from Ottawa’s Fairmont Chateau Laurier.
  • Justice Robert Wadden imposed a sentence of two years less a day—the maximum allowable in provincial custody—highlighting the work’s status as a cultural and historical symbol.
  • Wood’s lawyer, Lawrence Greenspon, announced plans to appeal within ten days, calling the sentence excessively harsh for a first-time offender.
  • The celebrated ‘Roaring Lion’ photograph, which appears on the UK £5 note, was gifted to the Chateau Laurier in 1998 and substituted with a forged print before its disappearance.
  • Ottawa Police located the original in September 2024 after tracing its sale through Sotheby’s in London to an unwitting Italian buyer.