Famous Churchill photo stolen from Canadian hotel and replaced with fake in heist unearthed by eagle-eyed worker

Known as ‘The Roaring Lion’, photograph was used on the British five-pound note in 2016

A famous photograph of former British prime minister Winston Churchill has been stolen from a hotel in Canada and replaced with a fake copy.

Churchill’s photo which hung in Ottawa’s Chateau Laurier hotel was taken by Armenian-Canadian photographer Yousuf Karsh in December 1941 on Parliament Hill and is among the most famous photos ever taken of the British prime minister.

Known as the “The Roaring Lion”, the photograph was used on the British five-pound note in 2016.

The photo was determined to be a replica only after a hotel employee found the portrait was not hung properly over the weekend. It remains unclear when the original was replaced.

The eagle-eyed employee also noticed the photo frame did not match the other photographs by Karsh that are also hung in the hotel’s reading lounge.

The hotel then contacted Jerry Fielder, who oversees Karsh’s estate, to assess the signature on the suspect print.

“I’ve seen that signature for 43 years. So it took me just one second to know that someone had tried to copy it,” Mr Fielder was quoted as saying to The Guardian.

“It was a fake.”

A confirmation of the photo being a replica was also received from the Estate of Yousuf Karsh, the hotel said in a statement on Tuesday.

Geneviève Dumas, the Chateau Laurier’s general manager said this was a “brazen act.”

“We are deeply saddened by this brazen act,” the manager was quoted as saying in the statement by CTV News.

“The hotel is incredibly proud to house this stunning Karsh collection, which was securely installed in 1998,” Ms Dumas added.

Once the theft was discovered, the other photographs in the room were also removed.

“As a precautionary measure, the remaining photographs located in the Reading Lounge have been removed until they can be secured properly.”

On Saturday, the hotel lodged a complaint with the Ottawa police about the theft of the photograph, which prompted them to start an investigation.

“The Ottawa Police Service received a complaint on August 20th about the theft of an original photograph of Winston Churchill,” police said in a statement.

Karsh had lived in the hotel with his wife for nearly two decades from 1972 to 1992.

The photograph is famous for capturing the former British prime minister off guard after Karsh allegedly took away his pipe from his mouth moments before it was taken.

Churchill had delivered a speech to the Canadian parliament in 1941 before the photo was taken.

Recalling the day afterwards, Karsh had said: “I timorously stepped forward and said, ‘Sir, I hope I will be fortunate enough to make a portrait worthy of this historic occasion.’ He glanced at me and demanded, ‘Why was I not told?’”

Churchill lit a fresh cigar right before the photograph was taken and continued to puff on it.

“Then I stepped toward him and, without premeditation, but ever so respectfully, I said, ‘Forgive me, sir,’ and plucked the cigar out of his mouth,” Karsh was quoted as saying.

“By the time I got back to my camera, he looked so belligerent he could have devoured me. It was at that instant that I took the photograph.”