Winston Churchill portrait “The Roaring Lion” was stolen from a hotel in Canada. Police tracked the photograph to a buyer in Italy. [Video]

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 …