Lawyer unknowingly buys stolen Winston Churchill portrait worth millions: ‘Like having a Mona Lisa’

A lawyer and passionate art collector thought he had bought a signed copy of an iconic 1941 photograph of Winston Churchill but ended up possessing the stolen original copy.

Nicola Cassinelli, 34, had been looking for something eye-popping to hang in his new apartment in Italy when he came across a signed copy of “The Roaring Lion” for sale in Sotheby’s online catalog in May 2022.

The black-and-white photograph is one of the famous depictions of Churchill, with the former world leader scowling down the lens, and has appeared on the UK’s five-pound banknote since September 2016.

Yousuf Karsh’s 1941 portrait of Winston Churchill, “The Roaring Lion.” AP

Cassinelli bid over $5,300 (£4,200), believing it was the perfect piece for his apartment.

“It immediately grabbed my attention, not just for its beauty but because I am fascinated with the figure of Winston Churchill,” Cassinelli told The Telegraph on Sunday.

“This was the emblematic photo that captured his anger, the strength of the free world – good that triumphs over evil. It’s historic.”

His bid was accepted, and two weeks later, after paying an additional $2,500 in customs, shipping, and tax charges, he had the iconic photo hanging in his apartment.

Excited about the piece of history, Cassinelli showed it to all his guests and thought nothing more of it.

However, unbeknownst to the lawyer and Sotheby, he had not bought a signed copy but the original.

Renowned photographer Yousuf Karsh snapped the iconic portrait in 1941 in the Speaker’s office just after Churchill delivered a rousing wartime address to Canadian lawmakers.

Yousuf Karsh is captured on film next to his famous large image of Sir Winston Churchill, taken in 1941, during the preview of his 80th birthday exhibition at London’s Barbican Art Gallery. PA Images via Getty Images

The original photograph was signed by Karsh and gifted to the Ottawa hotel Fairmont Fairmont Château Laurier, where the photographer lived and worked towards the end of his life.

It remained in the lobby for years and was a tourist attraction for the hotel until it was stolen between Christmas Day, 2021, and Jan. 6, 2022, and replaced with a forgery.

The swap was only uncovered months later, in August, when a hotel worker noticed the frame wasn’t hung properly and looked different.

By that time, the photograph had already been trafficked to Europe.

The hotel director, Geneviève Dumas, said the photo was an iconic and integral part of its history and “Its value far exceeded its monetary worth.”

“The Roaring Lion” remained in the lobby for years and was a tourist attraction for the hotel until it was stolen between Christmas Day, 2021, and Jan. 6, 2022, and replaced with a forgery.

Three months after Cassinelli had unknowingly purchased the original, he received a call from Sotheby asking him not to sell or transfer the work to any third parties.

He was told by the art house an investigation was underway for the original.

Searching for more answers online, it dawned on him that he may be tangled in the art heist.

“I just waited, and all my friends and guests who came to my house, we would joke about having such an important piece of artwork right before our eyes,” Cassinelli told the Telegraph.

“Like having a Mona Lisa… because I paid a few thousand pounds, but online I had read it was worth millions. It was as if I was in a film.”

Canadian Cultural Heritage Deputy Minister Isabelle Mondou, left, and Andrea Clark-Grignon, Head of Public Affairs, unveil a photographic portrait known as “The Roaring Lion.” AP

The amateur art collector had been holding on to the photograph for about a year after realizing it could be the original when he got an email from Sotheby’s legal office asking to share his contact details with Canadian police.

They told him the whole story over a video call and pleaded with him to consider returning it.

Cassinelli had purchased the piece in good faith and was not obligated to return it.

“I had trusted one of the most important auction houses in the world, and at the time, it had not even been reported stolen, so mine was a legitimate purchase,” the lawyer said.

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However, being an admirer of art and history, Cassinelli agreed to return it.

Before returning the photograph, he wanted to ensure its legitimacy, so Cassinelli contacted Italy’s Carabinieri art fraud unit. The unit agreed to take it in for analysis and later confirmed that it was the original.

“The day after I handed it over, I went online and bought a cheap $100 poster of the same photograph and put it in the same spot,” Cassinelli told the outlet.

“The Roaring Lion” is now back in its rightful place at the hotel. Dumas revealed it in a ceremony on Friday.

Lawyer Nicola Cassinelli, Canadian Cultural Heritage Deputy Minister Isabelle Mondou, and Ambassador of Canada to Italy Elissa Golberg pose for a picture next to Yousuf Karsh’s “Roaring Lion” portrait of Churchill, stolen in 2022. REUTERS

“I can tell you that it is armed, locked, secured,” Dumas said.

“It’s not moving,” she said, adding that staff accidentally triggered the alarm on Thursday while they hung it up, “and I’m sure they heard it on Parliament Hill.”

Cassinelli told the Telegraph that the art house reimbursed him for the purchase and some legal expenses, but he still lost a few thousand euros.

However, he believed that the photo being returned to the hotel was what mattered.

“I like art and I like to collect. I am not in it to be speculative. Had I decided not to return it perhaps there would have been a big compensation worth its actual value, but there was an entire nation searching for it. I just felt it was right to return it,” he said.

Cassinelli was invited to the unveiling ceremony Friday but was unable to attend.

“I promised myself to one day go to Ottawa to see my photograph in the place where I know it should stay, because it had been gifted to the hotel by Yousuf Karsh, it is only right that it remains there,” the lawyer said.

Police have charged Jeffrey Iain James Wood from Ontario with forgery, theft, and trafficking of the photograph.