A solicitor, who paid £4,200 for a work of art by Sir Winston Churchill thought it was a cheap copy, suffered a major setback when he was embroiled in a scandal when it turned out to be the stolen original.

For his modest art collection, Nicola Cassinelli bought The Roaring Lion in 2022, a 1941 black-and-white portrait of Churchill frowning.

The 34-year-old was overjoyed after his £4,200 bid was accepted. Cassinelli obtained the portrait after spending £2,000 to have it cleared through customs and sent to Genoa, Italy.

He proudly showed it off to guests and was “really pleased” with the discovery, which has been on Bank of England £5 note since 2013.

But both the lawyer and Sotheby’s, a fine art auction house, were unaware that it was the original version and could fetch millions of dollars.

In the midst of the ongoing investigation, Sotheby’s called Cassinelli three months after the transaction and asked him to keep it in its custody.

Later, he looked around the web out of curiosity and discovered that he was involved in a fabrication scandal that had baffled people for years.

It was stolen from the foyer of the Fairmont Fairmont Château Laurier in January 2022 and smuggled into Europe.

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Nicola Cassinelli reveals how he discovered the truth

Speaking to the Telegraph, he described the whole scenario as in a movie. When he told Canadian Police throughout the story they asked him if he would consider returning the piece. However, he said it was a legal sale because it had not been reported stolen when he bought it.

“I went online and bought a cheap $100 poster of the same photograph and put it in the same spot,” Cassinelli said.

“I promised myself that one day I would go to Ottawa to see my photograph in the place where I know it should stay, because it had been donated to the hotel by Yousuf Karsh, it’s only right that it remains,” he added.

While Sotheby’s replaced him and covered part of his legal costs, Cassinelli lost several thousand euros.

“There was a whole nation looking for it. I just felt it was right to return it,” he said, adding that the loss didn’t bother him.

Churchill’s portrait considered the “most famous photograph” ever taken was stolen from a luxury hotel in Canada and replaced it with a fake one.