1 year later, iconic Churchill photo stolen from Ottawa hotel still eludes police

In a spacious sitting room just off the lobby of the Chateau Laurier hotel in Ottawa, complete with oversized leather chairs and soft music, a spotlight shines on an empty wall.

If you look closely, you'll see tiny holes in the wood panelling where special security bolts — which once held a frame firmly in place — have been neatly removed. Off to the side, down toward the bottom, sits an old brass nameplate: Winston Churchill 1941.

On this vacant and unrepaired wall, one of Canada's photographic masterpieces once hung proudly.

But a little over a year ago, Yousuf Karsh's famed portrait of former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill — a picture commonly known as The Roaring Lion — was stolen from the room, taken in plain sight.

"It's a part of the history … of Canada," said hotel general manager Geneviève Dumas. "Every day, people come and say, 'Where was it? What happened? Did you find it?'

"He needs to come back where he belongs," Dumas said, personalizing what's been dubbed Canada's art heist of the century.

WATCH | Paul Hunter investigates the case of the missing Churchill:

While police remain baffled by it, former FBI senior art theft investigator Robert Wittman has a theory. 

"The first thing I thought," he told CBC at his home in Philadelphia, "was that it was an inside job."

Part of the intrigue is the fact that no one even knew it was missing at first.

Last August, a maintenance worker at the Chateau Laurier noticed that the frame on the wall in the hotel's sitting room didn't look quite right. Closer inspection quickly revealed the Churchill to be a fake.

To the stunned dismay of all, someone had swapped out the original and replaced it with a cheap copy. The fake was a little smaller, had a slightly different frame and Karsh's signature was clearly forged. 

When the theft was discovered, it made headlines around the world — not least because the image is considered one of the most significant portraits of the last 100 years. 

Former hotel guests soon sent in souvenir photos they had taken of the Roaring Lion in prior visits to the hotel, which showed either the original or the fake up on the wall at different times. In studying these photos of the portrait, investigators were soon able to narrow the dates in which the theft must have occurred.