Churchill portrait thief loses appeal, heads to Supreme Court
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OTTAWA – The man who stole the “Roaring Lion” portrait of Winston Churchill from the Château Laurier in Ottawa in January 2022 lost his appeal of his sentence on Thursday.
Jeffrey Wood, who pleaded guilty to stealing the iconic portrait earlier this year, was sentenced to two years less a day in jail.
The Ontario Court of Appeal dismissed his sentence appeal in a two-to-one ruling.
Lawrence Greenspon, Wood’s lawyer, said he is seeking leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada in the coming weeks, based on reasons put forward by the dissenting judge.
Greenspon said Wood turned himself into jail Thursday morning, as required, though he will be seeking bail pending the leave to appeal application.
Renowned photographer Yousuf Karsh took the celebrated portrait in 1941 in the Speaker’s office just after Churchill delivered a rousing wartime address to Canadian members of Parliament.
Karsh lived in the hotel, and operated a studio out of it, for almost two decades. He donated the Churchill portrait and six others to the hotel in 1998, when he moved out.
Police said the portrait was stolen from the hotel sometime between Christmas Day 2021 and Jan. 6, 2022, and replaced with a fake.
The swap was only discovered months later, in August, when a hotel worker noticed the frame was not hung properly.
The portrait was returned to the hotel after a lengthy international investigation determined it was bought at an auction in London by an Italian man who was not aware it was stolen.
Greenspon said the “appropriate” sentence would have been house arrest or a conditional sentence order.
The text of the decision from the Court of Appeal for Ontario said the sentencing judge identified several aggravating factors, including that the crimes concerned an object of “historical and cultural significance” and that Wood had replaced the stolen print with his forged copy, trafficked the stolen artwork and caused “irreparable damage” to the print.
The decision said the sentencing judge also acknowledged mitigating factors, including that Wood had no criminal record and that he had pleaded guilty.
“The sentencing judge concluded that, absent mitigating factors, a penitentiary sentence in the range of three years would have been justified,” the decision said. “However, after taking into account the relevant mitigating factors, he imposed a sentence of two years less a day.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 30, 2025.
— With files from Alessia Passafiume