When Nicola Cassinelli, Italian lawyer and occasional art collector, bid on a portrait of the late U.K. prime minister Winston Churchill, he says, he didn’t know it would land him in the centre of an international criminal investigation.
The image depicts a glowering Churchill posing after his prolific 1941 speech in Canadian Parliament. It captures the wartime leader in the moments after local photographer Yousuf Karsh snatched a cigar out of his hand. When Karsh returned to his camera, he saw a Churchill who “looked so belligerent he could have devoured me.”
Karsh snapped the picture, titled “The Roaring Lion,” which has arguably become the most famous image of Churchill in history. It is also one of the most reproduced pictures of the 20th century, making an appearance on the U.K. five-pound note.
The stolen lion
Eight decades later, in May 2022, 38-year-old corporate lawyer Cassinelli was browsing art auctions online. He saw “The Roaring …