Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum theft

An empty frame hanging on a wall, between several portraits
The frame which once held The Storm on the Sea of Galilee

On March 18, 1990, 13 works of art valued at a combined total of $500 million were stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. In the early hours, guards admitted two men posing as police officers responding to a disturbance call. Once inside, the thieves tied up the guards and over the next hour committed the largest-value recorded theft of private property in history. Despite efforts by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and multiple probes around the world, no arrests have been made and no works have been recovered. The museum initially offered a reward of $5 million for information leading to the art's recovery, but in 2017 this was temporarily doubled to $10 million, with an expiration date set to the end of the year. This was extended into 2018 following helpful tips from the public.

The stolen works had originally been purchased by art collector Isabella Stewart Gardner (1840–1924) and intended to be left on permanent display at the museum with the rest of her collection. Since the collection and its layout are permanent, empty frames remain hanging both in homage to the missing works and as placeholders for their potential return. Experts are puzzled by the choice of paintings that were stolen, especially since more valuable artwork was left untouched. Among the stolen works was The Concert, one of only 34 known works by Vermeer and thought to be the most valuable unrecovered painting, valued at over $200 million. Also missing is The Storm on the Sea of Galilee, Rembrandt's only known seascape. Other works by Rembrandt, Degas, Manet, and Flinck were also stolen.

According to the FBI, the stolen artwork was moved through the region and offered for sale in Philadelphia during the early 2000s. They believe the thieves were members of a criminal organization based in the mid-Atlantic and New England. They also claim to have targeted two suspects, although they have not been publicly identified and are now deceased. Boston gangster Bobby Donati, murdered in 1991 as a result of ongoing gang wars, has been cited as a possible collaborator in the heist. Significant evidence suggests that Hartford, Connecticut gangster Robert Gentile knows the location of the works, although he denies involvement.

Robbery

Around midnight on Sunday morning, March 18, 1990, a red Dodge Daytona pulled up near the side entrance of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum along Palace Road.[1][2] Two men with fake police uniforms waited for at least an hour in the car, possibly trying to avoid being noticed by people leaving a Saint Patrick's Day party nearby.[3] Later at around 1 a.m., security guard Richard Abath returned to the front desk after patrolling the museum to switch positions with a fellow guard, the only other person in the building. At this time, Abath opened and quickly shut the Palace Road door, claiming he was trained to do this to ensure the door was locked. He claimed security logs from other nights would show that he had done this many times previously. The FBI has seized the logs, but has not commented on the issue further.[3]

refer to caption
The Gardner Museum in 2008

At 1:24 a.m., one of the two men outside pushed the buzzer near the door and told Abath they were policemen who heard of a disturbance in the courtyard, and requested to be let inside. Abath knew he should not let uninvited guests inside, but he was unsure on whether the rule applied to police officers. He could see the men and believed them to be police officers based on their uniforms. With his partner on patrol, Abath decided to buzz in the men.[3] When the intruders arrived at the main security desk, one of them told Abath that he looked familiar and there was a default warrant out for his arrest. Abath stepped out from behind his desk, where the only alarm button to alert police could be accessed. He was quickly asked for his ID, ordered to face the wall, and then handcuffed. Abath believed the arrest was a misunderstanding, until he realized he hadn't been frisked before being cuffed, and one officer's mustache was made of wax.[3] The second security guard arrived minutes later and was also handcuffed, after which he asked the intruders why he was being arrested. The thieves explained that they were not being arrested, but rather this was a robbery, and proceeded to take the guards to the museum's basement. They handcuffed the guards to pipes and wrapped duct tape around their hands, feet, and heads.[4]

Since the museum was equipped with motion detectors, the thieves' movements throughout the museum were recorded. After tying up the guards, the thieves went upstairs to the Dutch Room. As one of them approached Rembrandt's Self-Portrait (1629), a local alarm sounded, which they immediately smashed. They pulled the painting off the wall and attempted to take the wooden panel out of its heavy frame. Unsuccessful at the attempt, they left the painting on the floor. They cut Rembrandt's The Storm on the Sea of Galilee out of the frame, as well as A Lady and Gentleman in Black. They also removed Vermeer's The Concert and Govaert Flinck's Landscape with Obelisk from their frames. Additionally, they also took a Chinese bronze gu from the Shang dynasty.[4]

Elsewhere in the museum, they stole five Degas drawings and an eagle finial. The finial sat at the top of a Napoleonic flag, which they attempted to unscrew from the wall, but failed.[5] Manet's Chez Tortoni was also stolen from its location in the Blue Room. Motion detector records show that the only footsteps detected in the Blue Room that night were at 12:27 a.m. and again at 12:53 a.m. These times match to when Abath said he passed through on patrol. The frame for the painting was found on security chief Lyle W. Grindle's chair near the front desk.[3] The thieves made two trips to their car with artwork during the theft, which lasted 81 minutes. Before leaving, they visited the guards once more, telling them "You'll be hearing from us in about a year," although they were never heard from again.[1] The guards remained handcuffed until police arrived at 8:15 a.m. later that morning.[4]

Stolen artwork

Altogether, thirteen pieces were stolen at an estimated loss of $500 million, making the robbery the largest recorded private property theft in history.[6] Empty frames remain hanging in the museum, both in homage to the missing works and as placeholders for their potential return.[7] One of the paintings, The Concert, was Gardner's first major acquisition and one of only 34 known Vermeer works in the world.[8] It is thought to be the most valuable unrecovered stolen painting, with a value estimated at over $200 million.[9] Another painting, The Storm on the Sea of Galilee, is Rembrandt's only known seascape.[1] The bronze finial was taken from the top of a Napoleonic flag, possibly appearing like gold to the thieves.[8] The museum is offering a $100,000 reward for this piece alone.[10]

The following are the missing works of art:[5][8][11]

Notes
    1. ↑ The museum believes A Lady and Gentleman in Black to be a Rembrandt; however some scholars, including the Rembrandt Research Project in Amsterdam, say it is not.[4]
    2. ↑ Landscape with an Obelisk was formerly attributed to Rembrandt until being associated with his pupil, Flinck.[12]
    3. ↑ This Self-Portrait is postage-stamp sized. Not to be confused with Rembrandt's Self-Portrait (1629) oil painting also at the museum, which the thieves attempted to steal but did not take.[4]
    4. ↑ The gu is dated during the Shang dynasty

    Investigation

    The Federal Bureau of Investigation took control of the case on the grounds that the artwork would likely cross state lines.[13] They have conducted hundreds of interviews with probes stretching across the world involving Scotland Yard, Japanese and French authorities, private investigators, museum directors, and art dealers.[1] The FBI believes the thieves were members of a criminal organization based in the mid-Atlantic and New England, and that the stolen paintings were moved through Connecticut and the Philadelphia area in the years following the theft. Some of the art may have been offered for sale in Philadelphia in the early 2000s, including The Storm on the Sea of Galilee; however, their knowledge of what happened to the works after the attempted sale is limited.[2][14][15] The FBI stated it believed it knew the identity of the thieves in 2013, but in 2015 announced that they were now deceased. They have declined to identify the individuals.[16]

    refer to caption
    Sketches of the suspects

    No single motive or pattern has emerged through the thousands of pages of evidence gathered.[1] The selection of works puzzles the experts, specifically since more valuable artworks were available.[7] The FBI's lead agent assigned to the case, Geoffrey J. Kelly, finds it difficult to understand why this assortment of items was stolen despite the thieves being in the museum for enough time to take whatever they wished. On their way to the finial, the thieves passed by two Raphaels and a Botticelli painting.[4] Titian's The Rape of Europa, which is one of the museum's most well-known and valuable pieces, was not stolen.[4] Due to the brutish ways the criminals handled the robbery, cutting the paintings from their frames and smashing frames for two Degas sketches, investigators believe the thieves were amateur criminals, not experts commissioned to steal particular works.[3] Some investigators believe the works were destroyed, explaining why they have not reappeared.[1] Theories on the theft include that it was organized by the Irish Republican Army in order to raise money or bargain for the release of imprisoned comrades. Another theory states Whitey Bulger was the ringleader of the theft. At the time of the heist, he was Boston's top crime boss and an FBI informant.[1]

    The museum first offered a reward of $1 million, but that was later increased to $5 million in 1997.[1] The reward is for "information that leads directly to the recovery of all of [their] items in good condition",[15] which remains on offer more than a quarter-century later.[1] In May 2017, the bounty was doubled to $10 million, with an expiration date set for midnight on December 31 of that year.[17][18][19] This reward was extended into 2018 following an outpouring of tips from the public.[20] Federal authorities have stated they will not charge anyone who voluntarily turns in the artwork, but anyone caught knowingly in possession of stolen items could be prosecuted.[2][21] The thieves cannot face charges because the five-year statute of limitations has expired.[2]

    Loss of DNA evidence

    In 2010, the FBI announced that some evidence from the original crime scene had been sent to the FBI's Laboratory in Quantico, Virginia, for retesting with the hope of finding new DNA evidence to identify the culprits of the theft.

    In June 2017, The Boston Globe reported that some of the crime scene evidence collected by the FBI was missing. Even after an exhaustive search, they were unable to locate handcuffs and duct tape used to immobilize the museum's two security guards that could have contained traces of the thieves' DNA material.[22]

    Leads

    In 1994, the museum director Anne Hawley received a letter that promised the return of the pieces for $2.6 million. If interested, the museum had to get The Boston Globe to publish a coded message in a business story. The message was published, but nothing further was heard once law enforcement got involved.[13]

    Late one night in 1997, Boston Herald reporter Tom Mashberg was driven to a warehouse in Red Hook, Brooklyn by William Youngworth, a career criminal and associate of New England art thief Myles Connor Jr.,[13] to see what was purported to be The Storm on the Sea of Galilee. Mashberg had been investigating the theft and was briefly allowed to view the painting with a flashlight. He was given a vial of paint chips for authenticity. These were later confirmed by experts to be fragments of Dutch 17th-century origin—but not from the stolen painting.[1] It was never concretely determined to be real or fake, and the FBI quit dealing with Youngworth after not making any progress.[13] The painting has since disappeared.[1]

    Suffolk Downs
    Suffolk Downs was searched in December 2015 without result

    On August 6, 2015, police released a video from the night before the theft that is believed to show a dry run of the robbery. Two men appear on the tape: one remains unidentified, while the other has been confirmed as Richard Abath, a security guard on duty the night of the heist. The video appears to show Abath buzzing the unidentified man into the museum twice within a few minutes. The man stayed for about three minutes in the lobby, then returned to a car and drove off.[23] Police say the video opens new lines of investigation, and The New York Times points out that it draws new attention to Abath as a potential collaborator.[24] However, the guards had previously been interviewed and deemed too unimaginative to have pulled off the heist[1] – which is not to say they could not have been collaborators.

    In December 2015 FBI agents searched East Boston's Suffolk Downs horse racing track, acting on a tip consistent with rumors among Suffolk Downs employees in the 1990s that the stolen art was there. Stables, parts of the grandstand closed since the early 1990s, and two safes (which had to be drilled open) were searched without result.[21]

    Potential perpetrators

    Boston gangster Bobby Donati may have been involved in the heist. New England art thief Myles J. Connor Jr., in prison at the time of the robbery, has stated that he and associate Bobby Donati eyed the museum in the 1980s and Donati oversaw the operation.[1] Shortly before the robbery, Donati was seen at a nightclub with a sack of police uniforms.[13] Donati worked under Boston crime boss Vincent Ferrara, and visited him in prison in the early 1990s. When Ferrara asked about the robbery, Donati said he "buried the stuff" and would find a way to negotiate his release. Donati was murdered in 1991 as a result of ongoing gang wars.[13]

    Hartford, Connecticut, gangster Robert "Bobby the Cook" Gentile has been suggested on multiple occasions as knowing the location of the Gardner works.[21][25] In May 2012, FBI agents searched Gentile's home in Manchester, Connecticut. They did not find any stolen works, despite searching his preferred hiding spot beneath a false floor with the help of his son. However, in the basement, they found a sheet of paper listing what each stolen piece might draw on the black market.[21] In January 2016, the FBI contrived gun charges against Gentile to force him to reveal the location of the missing works. During a hearing, a federal prosecutor revealed significant evidence tying Gentile to the crime. The prosecutor stated that Gentile and mob partner Robert Guarente attempted to use the return of two stolen pieces to reduce a prison sentence for one of their associates. Guarente's wife told investigators in early 2015 that her husband once had possession of some of the art, and gave two paintings to Gentile before Guarente died of cancer in 2004. Also, while in federal prison during 2013–2014, Gentile told at least three people he had knowledge of the stolen art. In 2015, Gentile submitted to a lie detector test, denying advanced knowledge of the heist or ever possessing any paintings. The result showed a 0.1% chance that he was truthful.[25] According to Gentile's lawyer, federal agents are convinced that Gentile has the stolen works.[21] Gentile's home was searched again by the FBI on May 2, 2016, even though his lawyer insists that if Gentile had the stolen artwork or knowledge of its whereabouts, he would have turned it in for the reward money a long time ago.[26] On September 5, 2017, Gentile was scheduled to be sentenced for a separate weapons charge in Connecticut.[27]

    When the museum raised its bounty in 1997, Myles J. Connor Jr. said he could locate the missing artwork in exchange for legal immunity. Authorities rejected his offer. Connor now believes that the Gardner works have passed into other, unknown hands. "I was probably told, but I don't remember," he said, blaming a heart attack that affected his memory.[1] Louis Royce, another Boston area gangster, claims he is still owed 15% for devising the plan for two fake policemen to request access to the museum at night.[13]

    The high profile Gardner Museum theft has been referenced and parodied in many different works. It was the subject of the 2005 documentary Stolen, which first appeared in a slightly different version on Court TV.[28] The more well-known paintings have been referenced in multiple TV shows, including The Blacklist episode "The Courier",[29] The Simpsons episode "American History X-cellent",[30] Drunk History episode "Boston",[31] and American Greed.[32]

    Several books were written by former investigators: Artful Deception (2012) by James J. McGovern; Priceless: How I Went Undercover to Rescue the World's Stolen Treasures (2010), by Robert Wittman and John Shiffman; and Stolen Masterpiece Tracker (2006) by Thomas McShane.[33][34][35]

    Stephen Kurkjian, a reporter for The Boston Globe, has written a book about his experience titled Master Thieves: The Boston Gangsters Who Pulled Off the World's Greatest Art Heist (2015).[13] Journalist Ulrich Boser wrote a book called The Gardner Heist (2009), leaning heavily on the documented investigation of Harold Smith, an insurance underwriter who worked on art cases.[36]

    The theft features in the novel The Art Forger (2012) by B.A. Shapiro.[37]

    See also

    References

    1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Robert M. Poole (July 2005). "Ripped from the Walls (and the Headlines)". Smithsonian. Archived from the original on June 5, 2017.
    2. 1 2 3 4 Murphy, Shelley. "Search for artworks from Gardner heist continues 25 years later". The Boston Globe. Archived from the original on February 15, 2016. Retrieved February 12, 2016.
    3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Kurkjian, Stephen (March 2013). "Decades after the Gardner heist, police focus on guard". Boston Globe. Archived from the original on September 28, 2015.
    4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Esterow, Milton (May 2009). "Inside the Gardner Case". ArtNews. Archived from the original on December 25, 2014.
    5. 1 2 "Lost Art: Photos of the Paintings Stolen from Gardner Museum". LiveScience. Archived from the original on October 4, 2015. Retrieved October 8, 2015.
    6. ↑ Menconi, David (March–April 2012). "Hot Canvases: A new book shatters myths about art theft". Harvard Magazine. Archived from the original on March 22, 2015.
    7. 1 2 McShane, Thomas & Matera, Dary (2006). "18. No Boston Tea Party at Isabella's". Stolen Masterpiece Tracker. Barricade Books. ISBN 978-1-56980-314-1.
    8. 1 2 3 "FBI – Have You Seen These?". Federal Bureau of Investigation. Archived from the original on September 15, 2015. Retrieved September 8, 2015.
    9. ↑ "PBS – Stolen". PBS.org. Archived from the original on February 21, 2016. Retrieved February 12, 2016.
    10. ↑ "Official Gardner Museum Site – Theft News". Isabella Stewart Garndner Museum. Archived from the original on October 29, 2015. Retrieved October 8, 2015.
    11. ↑ "Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Theft". Federal Bureau of Investigation. Archived from the original on June 24, 2016. Retrieved February 27, 2013.
    12. ↑ Vigderman, Patricia. The Memory Palace of Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Hol Art Books. p. 151. ISBN 978-1-936102-24-2.
    13. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Connelly, Sherryl. "Possible leads in $500M Boston museum robbery in 1990". New York Daily News. Archived from the original on December 13, 2015. Retrieved January 8, 2016.
    14. ↑ "FBI Says It Has Clues in '90 Boston Art Heist". The New York Times. Retrieved March 18, 2013.
    15. 1 2 Comcowich, Greg (March 18, 2013). "FBI Provides New Information Regarding the 1990 Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Art Heist: Information Sought from Those in Philadelphia and Connecticut Who May Have Knowledge of the Art's Location" (Press release). Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Division. Archived from the original on July 10, 2017.
    16. ↑ "FBI says two suspects who stole $500m in art from Boston museum are dead". The Guardian. Archived from the original on August 14, 2015. Retrieved August 12, 2015.
    17. ↑ Gardner Museum staff (May 2017). "Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum : Gardner Museum doubles reward to $10 million for return of stolen art". www.gardnermuseum.org. Retrieved May 26, 2017.
    18. ↑ Bowley, Graham (May 23, 2017). "Gardner Museum Doubles Reward for Recovery of Stolen Masterpieces". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on May 24, 2017. Retrieved May 24, 2017.
    19. ↑ Murphy, Shelley (December 15, 2017). "$10m reward for stolen Gardner museum artwork set to expire at end of 2017". The Boston Globe. Retrieved December 16, 2017.
    20. ↑ "$10M Reward Extended For Return Of Stolen Gardner Museum Art". CBS. January 11, 2018. Retrieved January 16, 2018.
    21. 1 2 3 4 5 Kurkjian, Stephen. "Search of Suffolk Downs for Gardner Museum masterpieces came up empty". The Boston Globe. Archived from the original on December 31, 2015. Retrieved January 7, 2016.
    22. ↑ Murphy, Shelley; Kurkjian, Stephen (June 12, 2017). "Evidence in Gardner Museum thefts that might bear DNA is missing". The Boston Globe. Retrieved June 12, 2017.
    23. ↑ "New video shows possible dry run for Gardner Museum art Heist". boston.com. Archived from the original on January 25, 2016. Retrieved February 12, 2016.
    24. ↑ Jones, Jonathan. "Is America's greatest art heist about to be solved?". The Guardian. Archived from the original on February 14, 2016. Retrieved February 12, 2016.
    25. 1 2 Mahoney, Edmund H. "Prosecutors Reveal More Evidence They Say Ties Robert Gentile To Gardner Museum Robbery". courant.com. Hartford Courant. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved January 7, 2016.
    26. ↑ "FBI searching mobster's home for stolen Gardner masterpieces". WCVB. Archived from the original on May 10, 2016. Retrieved May 2, 2016.
    27. ↑ MAHONY, EDMUND H. "Feds Say Gentile's Feigning Mental Issues, But Gangster's Sentencing Postponed". courant.com. Retrieved September 5, 2017.
    28. ↑ Dreyfus, Rebecca (April 13, 2006). "Stolen: Is it still a masterpiece if no one can find it?" (PDF). Stolen pressbook. International Film Circuit. Archived from the original (PDF) on July 13, 2011. Retrieved June 24, 2010.
    29. ↑ Perigard, Mark (October 30, 2013). "Starring role for Boston on new hit Blacklist". Boston Herald. Archived from the original on January 26, 2016. Retrieved December 9, 2015.
    30. ↑ "'Simpsons' crack case of Gardner heist". Boston Herald. April 13, 2010. Archived from the original on January 26, 2016. Retrieved December 9, 2015.
    31. ↑ Perigard, Mark (July 30, 2013). "Art Heist – Uncensored Drunk History Video Clip – Comedy Central". Comedy Central. Archived from the original on December 22, 2015. Retrieved December 1, 2015.
    32. ↑ "American Greed – Unsolved $300 Million Art Heist". CNBC. October 14, 2012. Archived from the original on December 22, 2015. Retrieved December 11, 2015.
    33. ↑ Database, Crime Scene. "Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Heist | Crime Scene Database". crimescenedb.com. Archived from the original on May 17, 2017. Retrieved April 15, 2017.
    34. ↑ Valencia, Milton. "Observers, investigators say now is time to find Gardner art before it is lost – The Boston Globe". BostonGlobe.com. The Boston Globe. Archived from the original on January 25, 2016. Retrieved January 8, 2016.
    35. ↑ Kennedy, Randy (June 6, 2010). "F.B.I. Art Sleuth, Now Author of 'Priceless'". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on May 17, 2017. Retrieved April 15, 2017.
    36. ↑ Capps, Kriston (February 19, 2009). "Sketching in the details of the Gardner heist". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on May 16, 2017. Retrieved April 14, 2017.
    37. ↑ Taylor, Art (October 21, 2012). "Book World: Drawing on reality". The Washington Post. Retrieved March 26, 2017.
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