‘Roaring Lion’ Churchill Portrait Retrieved from Italy after Canada Thefthttps://english.aawsat.com/culture/5062710-%E2%80%98roaring-lion%E2%80%99-churchill-portrait-retrieved-italy-after-canada-theft
‘Roaring Lion’ Churchill Portrait Retrieved from Italy after Canada Theft
Canadian Cultural Heritage Deputy Minister Isabelle Mondou unveils Yousuf Karsh's "Roaring Lion" portrait of Churchill, stolen in 2022 from Ottawa’s Fairmont Chateau Laurier and recovered in Italy, during a ceremony at the Canadian Embassy in Rome, Italy, September 19, 2024. (Reuters)
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‘Roaring Lion’ Churchill Portrait Retrieved from Italy after Canada Theft
Canadian Cultural Heritage Deputy Minister Isabelle Mondou unveils Yousuf Karsh's "Roaring Lion" portrait of Churchill, stolen in 2022 from Ottawa’s Fairmont Chateau Laurier and recovered in Italy, during a ceremony at the Canadian Embassy in Rome, Italy, September 19, 2024. (Reuters)
Italy handed back to Canada on Thursday a famous photographic portrait of Winston Churchill that was stolen from an Ottawa hotel more than two years ago and sold at auction to an unsuspecting Italian lawyer.
The so-called "Roaring Lion" photograph was shot by Yousuf Karsh in 1941 just after Britain's World War Two leader had given a speech to the Canadian parliament.
With his hand on his hip, Churchill is seen scowling severely at the lens -- an expression that Karsh put down to the fact that he had just plucked a cigar from the prime minister's hand before releasing the shutter.
The picture hanged for years in the Fairmont Chateau Laurier hotel, where the Armenian-Canadian photographer used to have a studio, but staff realized in August 2022 that their original image had been replaced with a signed copy.
A subsequent investigation found that their version had gone missing during the 2021 Christmas holidays and had been sold by an auction house in London in May 2022 to lawyer Nicola Cassinelli, who agreed to return it when he found out the truth.
"I think that if Mr. Karsh donated it to the hotel, it means that he really wanted it to stay there," Cassinelli said during a ceremony in the Canadian embassy to return the work.
He said he had paid 5,200 pounds ($6,895) excluding commission at the auction and had received only a partial refund. "I didn't get all the money back, but I did get a very funny story to tell," said Cassinelli.
The hotel director said the photo was an iconic image and an integral part of its history. "Its value far exceeded its monetary worth," said Geneviève Dumas.
Canadian media said a man from Ontario had been arrested and charged over the theft.
A construction worker unveils recovered pieces from the Great Mosque of Tinmel, which dates back to the 12th century and suffered significant damage during a 2023 earthquake, in the Atlas mountain village of Tinmel, outside of Marrakech, Morocco, Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024. (AP)
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Brick by Brick, Morocco Rebuilds 12th-Century Mosque Destroyed by 2023 Earthquake
A construction worker unveils recovered pieces from the Great Mosque of Tinmel, which dates back to the 12th century and suffered significant damage during a 2023 earthquake, in the Atlas mountain village of Tinmel, outside of Marrakech, Morocco, Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024. (AP)
The hand-carved domes and brick-laid arches had almost all been put back together when an earthquake shook Morocco so violently that they caved in on themselves and crashed to the earth.
After nearly 900 years, the Great Mosque of Tinmel lay in pieces — its minaret toppled, its prayer hall full of rubble, its outer walls knocked over.
But even in ruins, it remained holy ground for the residents of Tinmel. Villagers carried the sheet-laden bodies of the 15 community members killed in the quake down the hillside and placed them in front of the decimated mosque.
Among the mourners was Mohamed Hartatouch, who helped carry the remains of his son Abdelkrim. A 33-year-old substitute teacher, he died under bricks and collapsed walls while the village waited a day and a half for rescue crews to arrive.
“It looked like a storm. I wasn’t able to feel anything,” the grieving father said, remembering the day after the quake.
One year later, the rubble near Hartatouch’s half-standing home has been swept aside and Tinmel residents are eager to rebuild their homes and the mosque. They say the sacred site is a point of pride and source of income in a region where infrastructure and jobs were lacking long before the earthquake hit.
“It’s our past,” Redwan Aitsalah, a 32-year-old construction worker, said the week before the earthquake’s anniversary as he reconstructed his home overlooking the mosque.
The September 2023 quake left a path of destruction that will take Morocco years to recover from. It killed nearly 3,000 people, knocked down almost 60,000 homes and leveled at least 585 schools. The damage will cost about $12.3 billion to rebuild, according to government estimates.
Stretches of road were left unnavigable, including Tizi N’Test, the steep mountain pass that weaves from Marrakech to Tinmel and some of the hardest-hit villages near the earthquake’s epicenter.
Workers are now sifting through the rubble searching for the mosque's puzzle pieces. They are stacking useable bricks and sorting the fragments of remaining decorative elements arch by arch and dome by dome, preparing to rebuild the mosque using as much of the remains as possible.
Hassan Ait Ali Ouhamous, a religious scholar from the region of Al-Haouz, inspects restoration works at the Great Mosque of Tinmel, which dates back to the 12th century and suffered significant damage during a 2023 earthquake, in the Atlas mountain village of Tinmel, outside of Marrakech, Morocco, Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024. (AP)
Though incomparable to the human loss and suffering, the restoration effort is among Morocco’s priorities as it attempts to rebuild.
The country’s Ministry of Islamic Affairs and Ministry of Culture have recruited Moroccan architects, archaeologists and engineers to oversee the project. To assist, the Italian government has sent Moroccan-born architect Aldo Giorgio Pezzi, who had also consulted on Casablanca’s Hassan II Mosque, one of Africa's largest.
“We will rebuild it based on the evidence and remains that we have so it returns to how it was,” Morocco’s Minister of Islamic Affairs Ahmed Toufiq told The Associated Press.
The Great Mosque was a marvel of North African architecture with lobed arches, hand-carved moldings and the adobe-style bricks made of rammed earth used to construct most the area’s structures.
It was undergoing an 18-month-long restoration project when the quake struck, causing its ornate domes and pillars to cave in. Its clay-colored remnants lay in pieces beneath scaffolding erected by restoration workers from villages throughout the region, five of whom also died.
“The mosque withstood centuries. It’s the will of God,” Nadia El Bourakkadi, the site’s conservationist, told local media. The temblor leveled it months before repairs and renovations were to be completed.
Like in many of the area’s villages, residents of Tinmel today live in plastic tents brought in as temporary shelter post-earthquake. Some are there because it feels safer than their half-ruined homes, others because they have nowhere else to go.
Officials have issued more than 55,000 reconstruction permits for villagers to build new homes, including for most of the homes in Tinmel. The government has distributed financial aid in phases. Most households with destroyed homes have received an initial $2,000 installment of rebuilding aid, but not more.
Despite the extent of their personal losses, Moroccans are also mourning the loss of revered cultural heritage. Centuries-old mosques, shrines, fortresses and lodges are scattered throughout the mountains.
The country sees Tinmel as the cradle of one of its most storied civilizations. The mosque served as a source of inspiration for widely visited sacred sites in Marrakech and Seville. Pilgrims once trekked through the High Atlas to pay their respects and visit. Yet centuries ago, it fell into disrepair as political power shifted to Morocco’s larger cities and coastline.
“It was abandoned by the state, but materials were never taken from it,” said Mouhcine El Idrissi, an archaeologist working with Morocco’s Ministry of Culture. “People here have long respected it as a witness to their glorious and spiritual past.”
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