Theft of Churchill portrait from Chateau Laurier ‘not just a burglary,’ former FBI agent says

By Michael Lee

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    TORONTO (CTV Network) — The theft of an iconic portrait of Sir Winston Churchill from Ottawa’s Chateau Laurier hotel was likely an “inside job,” a former art crime investigator with the FBI says.

Robert Wittman, a former Federal Bureau of Investigation special agent who helped create the agency’s Art Crime Team, told CTV’s Your Morning on Wednesday that FBI research into stolen artwork and collectibles has found about 89 per cent of thefts are done by insiders, such as collectors or employees.

“So usually when a situation like this occurs, it’s not a shoplifting, it’s not just a burglary; it’s someone from the inside who had access, who knew what they were looking for, knew what the security measures were that were protecting the piece and that (they) were able to defeat those measures because they had inside information,” Wittman said.

Officials at the Chateau Laurier say someone stole the photograph of the former British prime minister, taken by Canadian photographer Yousuf Karsh during the Second World War, about eight months ago and replaced it with a copy.

The hotel made the discovery last weekend after noticing the photograph wasn’t hung properly and the portrait’s frame did not match the others from Karsh that are also hung in the Chateau Laurier’s Reading Lounge.

Taken in December 1941, the portrait remains on the British five-pound note and has appeared on stamps and magazine covers. Ottawa police say they are investigating the theft.

Some have estimated the photo could fetch six figures at auction.

Christopher Marinello, founder and CEO of Art Recovery International, said a print of the portrait sold a couple of years ago for about $81,000.

“Somebody may buy this, not asking the right questions, not inspecting the provenance and may pay good money for it, and may lose everything when it’s spotted and recovered by someone like myself or police or us working in tandem,” Marinello told CTV News Channel on Wednesday.

He said he believes the artwork will be recovered eventually, although arrests in cases such as these are rare.

“Here there was that head start but eventually this work is going to have to be sold for the thief to get what he wants out of it and that’s cash,” Marinello said.

“There’s no romance in art theft, there’s no exciting, sexy collector just accumulating these types of things. This was done by a thug looking to convert it to cash plain and simple, and when he does so, that’s when we’ll spot it and that’s when we’ll be able to work towards the recovery.”

While Wittman does not expect the photo will bring in that much money on the secondary market, he acknowledged the unique story behind the photo could attract collectors.

Karsh famously took Churchill’s cigar from him before taking the photo on Parliament Hill, creating the scowl on the prime minister’s face the photographer ultimately captured on film.

Wittman said he expects the investigation to include a forensic analysis of any fingerprints, a review of surveillance footage at the hotel and nearby locations, looking at who had access to the photo and what security measures were in place to secure it on the wall, as well as potentially tracing the frame back to its place of purchase.

In his experience, Wittman said the recovery rate for high-value artwork is as high as 95 per cent.

“Ultimately, unless it’s destroyed, it’s still in the marketplace,” he said. “At some point, it comes back to market, it’s advertised and then we recover it.”

With files from CTV News Ottawa’s Michael Woods

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Sonja Puzic