Roaring Lion found - iconic Winston Churchill portrait stolen in Canada discovered in Italy two years later

Yousuf Karsh and his Churchill portrait.

In August 2022, in a heist reminiscent of a Donald E. Westlake plot, an employee at the Château Laurier Hotel in Ottawa noticed something was amiss. 

A famous portrait of former UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill nicknamed the "Roaring Lion," hung in the hotel. It was taken after the British wartime leader addressed the Canadian parliament in 1941 and also appears on the UK £5 banknote.