It took months for anyone to figure it out. The iconic portrait of former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill at the Château Laurier hotel in Ottawa, Canada has been stolen and replaced by a copy. Last week, a hotel employee noticed that the frame was misaligned and not the same as the other five portraits in the room, all shot by noted Canadian-Armenian photographer Yousuf Karsh.
It is perhaps one of the most talked-about photographs of the twentieth century: Churchill without a cigar. After the then prime minister refused to throw away his cigar for the portrait photo in 1941, Karsh had removed it from his mouth with his own hands. It provided the photographer with his most famous photo, which was later used, among other things, on the 5-pound note.
To find out how long ago the portrait was stolen, the hotel asked visitors to send photos of the room. The collected images show that the original was last hung in the hotel’s reading room about eight months ago. The hotel manager showed the photo to guests almost daily during that time, but never noticed the scam.