[MSN] Canada. A month after it was stolen, the portrait of a Canadian soldier who died in Afghanistan has been returned to its Ottawa gallery -- along with an apology note.

[Museum Security Network Mailing list]

Sorry thief returns painting of fallen soldier
Updated Fri. Sep. 7 2007 5:58 PM ET

CTV.ca News Staff

A month after it was stolen, the portrait of a Canadian soldier who died in
Afghanistan has been returned to its Ottawa gallery -- along with an apology
note. 

The painting, slightly chipped, arrived at the Dale Smith Gallery on
Wednesday, returned by the repentant thief through express post. A one-line,
hand-written note was scrawled on the box: "Je m'excuse," French for "I'm
sorry." 

It included a return address, but gallery owner Dale Smith suspects the
address is not that of the thief's. 

"I opened it up and it was like a treasure, seeing it in the bubble wrap in
the box. I was a wonderful feeling." She said. "I never thought I'd see it
again." 

The portrait, painted by Ottawa artist Heidi Conrod, was of Sgt. Christos
Karigiannis, who was killed in Afghanistan in June. He died along side two
of his comrades, after a roadside bomb struck their unarmoured vehicle west
of Kandahar. All three soldiers were members of the Edmonton-based 3rd
Battalion Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry. 

Conrod painted the portraits of all three fallen soldiers after reading
about their deaths in the newspaper. 

"As an artist, I do paint a lot of portraits and I'm always looking for
subjects that I connect with but I also know that other people will connect
with," she said. "My heart went out to their families." 

Karigiannis' portrait was stolen off the gallery wall in August, just before
it was to be picked up by a friend of the Karigiannis family. It was
purchased as a gift for the late sergeant's girlfriend. Both the girlfriend
and family friend have asked to that they not be named in news reports. 

The portraits were a popular display at the gallery. They were part of a
group show this summer called "Fever." 

"It was like 'oh nooo,' of all the paintings to be missing, because that one
had a story behind it," Smith said. 

The portrait will now be delivered to Karigiannis' girlfriend. 

Police are still investigating the theft.

http://www.ctv.ca/