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Winston Churchill portrait “The Roaring Lion” was stolen from a hotel in Canada. Police tracked the photograph to a buyer in Italy.
A portrait of Sir Winston Churchill hung on the walls of the famed Fairmont Chateau Laurier in Ottawa, Canada, for years — but in 2022 it was discovered the iconic photo had been replaced with a copy.
More than two years later, Ottawa Police have found the photograph in Italy and said the buyer is planning to hand it back over to Canada during a ceremony in Rome.
A hotel worker discovered something was amiss with the portrait, named “The Roaring Lion,” in August 2022. He noticed the frame of the print did not match the others, the Smithsonian reported, so the hotel called photographer Yousuf Karsh‘s manager. The manager said he took one look at the signature on the replacement photo and knew it was a copy.
“We are deeply saddened by this brazen act,” Geneviève Dumas, the Chateau Laurier’s general manager, said in a news release at the time. “The hotel is incredibly proud to house this stunning Karsh collection, which was securely installed in 1998.”
Karsh, one of the world’s most celebrated portrait photographers, took Winston’s photo in 1941 after he took the prime minister’s cigar while he was smoking. Churchill’s resulting scowl made the photo so famous that it eventually made it to the front of England’s five-pound note.
Both Karsh and Winston had stayed at the hotel. Ottawa’s CTV television reported Karsh and his wife lived in the hotel for two decades and even operated his studio in the hotel from 1972 to 1992.
A subsequent police investigation found the portrait had been taken between December 25, 2021, and January 6, 2022. Police found the portrait was sold through an auction house in London to a buyer in Italy. Both were unaware the portrait was stolen.
Ottawa police said they used “public tips, forensic analysis, and international cooperation,” to track down the thief. A man from Ottawa — whose name the police won’t release due to a publication ban — was arrested on April 25, 2024.
The 43-year-old was charged with theft and trafficking, police said. The portrait’s buyer, who is from Genoa, has been working with Italian police to hand over the photo and “arrangements have been made with the citizen to ceremoniously hand over the portrait to the Ottawa Police Service in Rome later this month,” police said.
“Once in Ottawa Police custody, the portrait will be ready for the last step of its journey home to the Fairmont Château Laurier, where it will once again be displayed as a notable historic portrait,” police said.
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Yellowstone hiker burned when she falls into scalding water near Old Faithful, park officials say
Yellowstone National Park, Wyo. — A New Hampshire woman suffered severe burns on her leg after hiking off-trail in Yellowstone National Park and falling into scalding water in a thermal area near the Old Faithful geyser, park officials said.
The 60-year-old woman from Windsor, New Hampshire, along with her husband and their leashed dog were walking off a designated trail near the Mallard Lake Trailhead on Monday afternoon when she broke through a thin crust over the water and suffered second- and third-degree burns to her lower leg, park officials said. Her husband and the dog weren’t injured.
The woman was flown to Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center in Idaho Falls, Idaho for treatment.
National Park Service / Jacob W. Frank
Park visitors are reminded to stay on boardwalks and trails in hydrothermal areas and exercise extreme caution. The ground in those areas is fragile and thin and there’s scalding water just below the surface, park officials said.
Pets are allowed in limited, developed areas of Yellowstone park but are prohibited on boardwalks, hiking trails, in the backcountry and in thermal areas.
The incident is under investigation. The woman’s name wasn’t made public.
This is the first known thermal injury in Yellowstone in 2024, park officials said in a statement. The park had recorded 3.5 million visitors through August this year.
Hot springs have injured and killed more people in Yellowstone National Park than any other natural feature, the National Park Service said. At least 22 people have died from hot spring-related injuries in and around the 3,471-square-mile national park since 1890, park officials have said.
TRENTON, N.J. — Democratic Newark City Council President LaMonica McIver has defeated Republican small businessman Carmen Bucco in a contest in New Jersey’s 10th Congressional District that opened up because of the death of Rep. Donald Payne Jr. in April.
McIver will serve out the remainder of Payne’s term, which ends in January. She and Bucco will face a rematch on the November ballot for the full term.
McIver said in a statement Wednesday that she stands on the “shoulders of giants,” naming Payne as chief among them.
She cast ahead to the November election, saying the right to make reproductive health choices was on the ballot as well as whether the economy should benefit the wealthy or “hard working Americans.”
“I will fight because the purpose of politics and the purpose of our vote is to give the people of our communities and our nation a bold voice,” she said.
Bucco congratulated McIver on the victory in a statement but said he’s looking forward to the rematch in November.
“I am not going anywhere,” he said in an email. “We still have a second chance to make district 10 great again!”
Who are LaMonica McIver and Carmen Bucco?
McIver emerged as the Democratic candidate in a crowded field in the July special election. A member of the city council of New Jersey’s biggest city since 2018, she also worked for Montclair Public Schools as a personnel director and plans to focus on affordability, infrastructure, abortion rights and “protecting our democracy,” she told The Associated Press earlier this summer.
Bucco describes himself on his campaign website as a small-business owner influenced by his upbringing in the foster system. He lists support for law enforcement and ending corruption as top issues.
The 10th District lies in a heavily Democratic and majority-Black region of northern New Jersey. Republicans are outnumbered by more than 6 to 1.
It’s been a volatile year for Democrats in New Jersey, where the party dominates state government and the congressional delegation.
Among the developments were the conviction on federal bribery charges of U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, who has denied the charges, and the demise of the so-called county party line — a system in which local political leaders give their preferred candidates favorable position on the primary ballot.
Democratic Rep. Andy Kim, who’s running for Menendez’s seat, and other Democrats brought a federal lawsuit challenging the practice as part of his campaign to oust Menendez, who has resigned since his conviction.
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Yellowstone hiker burned when she falls into scalding water near Old Faithful, park officials say
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Yellowstone hiker burned when she falls into scalding water near Old Faithful, park officials say
Wagon rolls over at Wisconsin apple orchard injuring about 25 children and adults