OTTAWA—It’s not clear how they did it: was it a clandestine operation, carried out under the cloak of darkness? An elaborate ruse, designed to fool onlookers? Or something else?
However it happened, it’s clear those who stole a world−famous portrait of Sir Winston Churchill from the Château Laurier planned the heist meticulously.
It took more than eight months for anyone to realize the photo hanging from the wood−panelled walls of the Reading Lounge was a fake.
“It was very premeditated,” said Bonnie Czegledi, an Ontario lawyer who specializes in international art and cultural heritage law….