The trial of a man accused of stealing the iconic “Roaring Lion” portrait of former British Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill from the Fairmont Chateau Laurier in Ottawa has been delayed after being scheduled to start Thursday.
Jeffrey Wood, of Powassan, Ont., faces multiple charges including theft over $5,000, forgery and trafficking in stolen property. The charges have not been proven in court.
Wood arrived at the courthouse on Elgin Street Thursday morning, flanked by his lawyer, Lawrence Greenspon, but proceedings were postponed by a day shortly after they arrived.
Speaking to reporters outside the Ottawa courthouse, Greenspon said his client is disappointed with the delay.
“The hope was that we would be proceeding today and that it would be finished tomorrow,” said Greenspon. “With this delay, there’s no guarantee that we can get it all in tomorrow. Certainly, we’ll try, but if we can’t, it’ll just have to be put over to another date.”
Wood was arrested in April 2024, more than two years after the famous portrait disappeared from the downtown Ottawa hotel and was replaced with a fake.
The “Roaring Lion” photo was taken by famed photographer Yousuf Karsh in 1941 and is one of the most well-known depictions of Churchill. The original signed print had been gifted to the Chateau Laurier by Karsh and his wife Estrellita in 1988.
It’s believed the portrait was stolen some time between Dec. 25, 2021, and Jan. 6, 2022, but was only reported stolen in August 2022.
The missing portrait had made its way to the Sotheby’s auction house in London, U.K., where it was sold to a lawyer from Genoa, Italy. Sotheby’s said it did not know the photograph was stolen when it was auctioned off. The portrait was recovered in September 2024 and repatriated to Canada in a ceremony at the Canadian embassy in Rome.
Greenspon said this case is unique in one sense, but also normal in another sense.
“The truth of the matter is that there are no other cases like this. The last time this kind of situation occurred, where an artifact was stolen and then recovered, was the Mona Lisa. And the result of that was that the value of the Mona Lisa was enhanced tremendously,” he said.
“Here, we’re talking about an unnumbered, unlimited edition of a print from a negative from a photograph. So, there are no other cases like this. The truth of the matter is, it’s a property crime.”
Representatives from the Chateau Laurier declined to comment Thursday.
With files from CTV National News’s Judy Trinh and CTV News Ottawa’s Katie Griffin
