Man pleads guilty to stealing Roaring Lion from the Chateau Laurier

Justice will soon be served: Three years after a famed portrait of Sir Winston Churchill was removed from the Chateau Laurier Hotel, the man behind it all pleaded guilty in an Ottawa courtroom Friday morning. 

• Jeffrey Wood, 44, pleaded guilty to three of six counts against him: theft over $5,000, trafficking in stolen property and knowingly committing forgery by making a false document, reported the Toronto Star. 

Here’s what happened: According to an agreed statement of facts, Wood was living in the Ottawa area at the time of the heist and had been working as an art seller since 2017. He intended to leave Canada about a month before the portrait was stolen, and posted multiple Facebook posts selling items. 

• On Dec. 24, 2021 — the day before the last known time the real photograph was on display — Wood called the Chateau Laurier and was on the phone for about two minutes. Two weeks later on Jan. 5, 2022, he travelled to Mexico. 

It’s confirmed the portrait taken by famed photographer Yousuf Karsh was in Wood’s possession at this time because he sent a picture of the piece to Sotheby's Auction House two days prior. 

It took a long time to notice: It’s believed the portrait was stolen some time between Dec. 25, 2021, and Jan. 6, 2022, but it was only reported stolen in August 2022, reported CTV. The original was replaced with a fake, something that was no small task since the frame was affixed to the wall with special bolts that required specific knowledge and unique tools to unfasten. The original had sat on the hotel's wall since 1998 when Karsh donated it to the Chateau Laurier — his longtime residence.  

• When the case was filed, police were able to take fingerprints from a piece of tape, though there was no match in the national DNA database at the time.  

Years later on Jan. 5, 2024, police found another poster printout of the famed roaring lion portrait in a storage unit. Also found in the locker was an invoice with Wood’s name and a tooth brush which contained his DNA. 

The search went global: Investigators were finally able to track the portrait down after it was purchased by a man in Genoa, Italy, who bought it from the London auction house where Wood received $4,503.85 for the photograph. 

• After a Canada-wide arrest warrant was issued, Wood turned himself in to the police and was released on strict bail conditions days later. 

Wood is sorry: In court, he apologized and said his decision was “incredibly misguided,” reported CBC. 

In comments to Justice Robert Wadden, Wood said he did the crime to help his brother overseas, but his family member was found dead soon after the photograph’s sale. 

• Lawyer Lawrence Greenspon, who is representing Wood, said: "This was not a crime of greed. It was a crime of love.”

Next steps: The Crown is asking for Wood to serve two years less a day, but the defence is hoping no further jail time will be needed. Greenspon has asked for a suspended sentence and probation. 

• “The truth of the matter is that there are no other cases like this. The last time this kind of situation occurred, where an artifact was stolen and then recovered, was the Mona Lisa. And the result of that was that the value of the Mona Lisa was enhanced tremendously,”  said Greenspon. “Here, we’re talking about an unnumbered, unlimited edition of a print from a negative from a photograph. So, there are no other cases like this. The truth of the matter is, it’s a property crime.”

Wood will be sentenced on April 14. 

There are still questions: One part of the crime that still remains unanswered is how Wood was able to carry out the act without any hotel staff or visitors noticing. What is known is he used duct tape to attach a replicated print to a picture backing which was then placed in a similar-looking frame.