The theft of a famous photograph of Winston Churchill frowning caused a stir in Canada when it was discovered that the photograph displayed in an Ottawa hotel for decades had been exchanged for a fake.

The Fairmont Château Lorier hotel called the police after discovering that the photograph of the former British prime minister was twisted and framed differently from other portraits shown at the establishment by Canadian-Armenian photographer Yousuf Karsh.

The portrait of the “roaring lion”, as Karsh called it, was created after Churchill addressed the Canadian Parliament in 1941 and quickly became a symbol of British resistance during the Second World War.

As speculation about the theft only grows, former hotel guests are sharing their photographs of the portrait in order to get closer to when the original is believed to have disappeared, possibly between December 25, 2021 and the January 6, 2022.

“Someone probably wanted the photograph for their private collection or to sell it. I don’t know,” Geneviève Dumas, general manager of the hotel, told AFP.

Although the value of the portrait is estimated at 100,000 dollars, Dumas assures us that it is priceless.

After fleeing the Armenian Genocide, Karsh and his wife moved to Canada and lived in the hotel for 18 years. Karsh has also photographed other personalities such as Martin Luther King, Albert Einstein, Ernest Hemingway and Queen Elizabeth II.

According to historical accounts, Karsh snatched a cigar from Churchill’s mouth just before taking the portrait, which explains the stark expression of the then Prime Minister in the iconic photograph.