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Sarah Ritchie, The Canadian PressOTTAWA — It sounds like a caper from a movie: a thief seems to have swapped out the famous portrait of a scowling Sir Winston Churchill, photographed by Yousuf Karsh in 1941, with a signed copy.
"The hotel is incredibly proud to house this stunning Karsh collection, which was securely installed in 1998," Dumas said in a statement. The Churchill portrait changed Karsh's life, according to the artist's website. It was taken after the then-British prime minister gave a speech to Canada's House of Commons on Dec. 30, 1941.
According to Karsh, he waited in the Speaker's chamber after the"electrifying speech" to take a photograph, but Churchill"growled" that he hadn't been informed. Karsh recalled that the prime minister refused to put down his cigar — and it's what happened next that allowed him to immortalize the scowl.