Nearly three years after its brazen theft, The Roaring Lion — grimace and all — is finally back where it belongs on the wall of the Fairmont Château Laurier hotel in Ottawa.
“It looks so beautiful,” hotel general manager Geneviève Dumas told CBC News on Wednesday, after it had been rehung. “I’m just very, very happy that this part of Canadian heritage is back home.”
The iconic photo of the late former British prime minister Winston Churchill is one of the world’s most famous portraits and is considered a Canadian treasure.
It was taken by celebrated Canadian photographer Yousuf Karsh in 1941, shortly after Churchill had given a wartime speech on Parliament Hill. It depicts Churchill glaring into the camera lens — as Karsh would often later recount because he had yanked Churchill’s beloved cigar from his fingers moments before pressing the shutter button.
The image came to be known as The Roaring Lionbecause it symbolized British wartime resoluteness. It’s now the face of the Bank …