At Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, solving the mystery could score you $10 million.
In many waystheDutch RoomofBoston’stransportiveIsabella Stewart Gardner Museumis typical : lit by curve Venetian window pretermit a verdant privileged courtyard , and tastefully stuffed with Gardner ’s handpicked collection . Amid period chairs and cabinet , candelabras and other trinkets , European portrayal act as dramatically with dark and illumination . Over by the entrance , a lone Rembrandtgazes out . It ’s an early ego - portrait paint at just 23 , gauzy scarf around his neck , textured feathering lilting off his pillowy cap . This is the painting that enliven the total museum — after acquiring it , Gardner focused on procuring masterpiece , in 1898 transforming a former swamp into a palace for her prizes .
But here is where thing get outlandish . On the rampart across from the Rembrandt are two largeempty frames , display nothing but the satiny Baroque wallpaper underneath . To the right , another set of empty form sit around propped back - to - back on a desk . On the left , a revenue stamp - sized void beckons from the side of a cabinet .
Over strains of maudlin violin on theaudio tour , the museum ’s theatre director of security measure , Anthony Amore , explain the scene : “ You ’re about to hear the storey of a horrific robbery that deprived the Gardner Museum — and you , the world — of some of the bully masterpieces in America . ”
Hmm… something seems off here.|Boston Globe/Getty Images
honored paintings were once in those empty frames ; they ’re now leftover of a nefarious crime . This theft - centric turn keep up the pace of the duo that commit it , with intimate details of the night .
And there ’s a bonus : If visitors clear they have evidence to assist convalesce the prowess , it could intend a whopping $ 10 million reward .
The heist that made history
You may have heard the story before , from the scads of newspaper publisher articles , the2018 WBUR and Boston Globe podcast Last Seen , or perhaps Netflix ’s four - part 2021 documentary , This is a Robbery . And if you ’re from Boston , odds are you could belike recite the basics by ticker . In the wee hour following St. Patrick ’s Day on Sunday , March 18 , 1990 , the Isabella Stewart Gardner museum was the dupe of the biggest art heist in modernistic story . Unlike the movies , the thief did n’t drop in from the ceiling , rappel down bulwark , or even shut out down alarm systems with fine - perfect hacking techniques . These guys ? They just walked right on in .
At 1:24 am , two men masquerading as Boston police officers — complete with moustache — announced themselves over the outside intercommunication system , claiming to be responding to news report of a disturbance . After getting buzzed in ( against communications protocol ) they whelm two young surety guards , randomly duct - taped their heart and mouths , and handcuffed them to pipe in the cellar . Then they got down to business .
xiii pieces were lifted that night , including two Rembrandts , a Vermeer , six sketches by Degas , and a Manet , weighing in at a grand sum of $ 500 million . The case remains unsolved , but if you ’re the one to help collapse it , you could be bet at that $ 10 million reward .
The museum’s gorgeous courtyard.|LnP images/Shutterstock
plunge in 2020,the museum ’s audio enlistment of the theftcommemorated the 30th day of remembrance of the crime , and purpose to keep the details fresh in the world ’s idea in hopes of finally making an arrest . Practical , certain . But it ’s also ludicrously fun . With a path find from tripped motion sensors , Edgar Albert Guest retrace the crooks ’ steps , jaunt through the museum in search of specific pieces while also taking note of treasures found along the way of life .
If you ’re looking to study about that storied dark , you ’ll come up plenty of selective information to quench your curiosity . But if you just want to recognise what it feels like to plume a museum and get away with the bargain of the century , consider this your immersive playbook .
The tour of deep lore
Amore ’s voice is sure yet forlorn as he narrate . take in 2005 , it ’s his primary business to solve this baffling case . Waves crash in the setting as he describes in vivid detail what ’s missing from the first large physical body : Rembrandt’sChrist in the Storm in the Sea of Galilee .
It ’s Rembrandt ’s only seascape . But beyond that it ’s simply magnetize . The sky is churning , the sea chaotic . Men cling for their lives . And in the middle of the employment , a familiar face — Rembrandt paint himself in , sedately looking out from the ship . If the painting still hung where it should the creative person would be making oculus contact with his 23 yr - older self portrait across the way .
The other turgid figure once hold another Rembrandt , this one aportrait of a duo . As account in the sound , the thieves placed both piece on the floor and crudely slit the paintings out of their frames . “ There are deep gashes on the wood support around the edges of the canvass , ” Amore continues . “ They impart those supports behind . It ’s really a hideous crime scene . ”
Missing: Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee by Rembrandt|Courtesy of the Isabella Stewart Gardener Museum
When people speak of this looting , they usually head to two pieces as the biggest losses . One isGalilee . The second is Vermeer ’s mysteriousThe Concert , as only 36 or so of his whole shebang stay intact today . In the Dutch Room , the house painting ’s empty shell sit over to the side atop a desk . With it , the thieves were unnecessarily spectacular , take it to the middle of the room , turning it facedown , and , after removing the canvas , letting the rest crash down to the floor . Crime scene photos show the form place on the soil , surrounded by shattered glass .
After an incongruous pause to wrangle a 12th centurybronze Formosan vessel , then unscrew a smallRembrandt etchingfrom its shell , it ’s through the hall — saturnine after hours — past the museum’sEarly Italian Roomand vibrant , red - walledRaphael Room , all ignore works by the Renaissance passe-partout . TheShort Gallerycame next , where they liberatedPierre - Philippe Thomire ’s Napoleonic bird of Jove finialalongside five drawings by Gallic Impressionist Edgar Degas .
Then lastly , back down the step to theBlue Room . It ’s speculated that at 2:45 am , the thief removedChez Tortoni , a portrait by Édouard Manet of a dapper man in a top hat . ( No alarm clock were triggered , making it impossible to know the exact time it endure missing . ) After taking it , the trespasser left the empty frame on the security desk .
The thieves went right past the Raphael painting on the left.|MediaNews Group/Boston Herald/Getty Images
The escapade took a full 81 minute . To put that in perspective , most art heists last about three minutes from get-go to finish . But do n’t care , the abbreviated enlistment only runs about 22 .
The mystery and its suspects
There have been theories about who did it , of course . Plenty of evidence points to an inner job : the easygoing clip spent , the knowledge of secret passage , and the precision of the path . The tape job on one of the guard , euphony studentRick Abath — the same one who buzzed in the looters — was uproariously ineffective . Abath also reportedly had boeuf with the head of security , so leave that last frame on the desk would have been a peculiarly tell ghost . But they ’ve gotten all we can out of him : Abathrecently pass on awayon March 2 , 2024 .
observe art thiefMyles Connorhas aroused suspicion — his repertory include a steal Rembrandt and in an audience he ’s admitted to casing the museum and fantasizing about copping the 12th C Chinese vase . There ’s also screenwriterBrian Michael McDevitt , a kid from the North Shore who position as a Vanderbilt and assay a interchangeable looting in Glens Falls , New York . His were the first fingerprints sent to the FBI for comparison after the Gardner rip-off .
Many possibility revolve around the syndicate , where , for in force or for spoiled , all of the suspects are dead . Recently , though , Amore tell Boston 25that they ’re canvass the cold case murder of a mobster named Jimmy Marks who was gun down in 1991 . A tout told tec that Marks was gasconade that not only was he in ownership of some of the stolen artwork , but he ’d hidden it .
Some impregnable grounds , but , alas , no recovered painting . That ’s where you — and this immersive walking term of enlistment — hail in . Three decennium later on , the thieves still have n’t fare onward , but there are generations of museum - goes out there who may have seen the stolen goods in pass . Maybe someone will hear Amore wax poetic aboutChez Tortoniand say , “ Hey , that cat in the top lid is hang over my grandma ’s couch . ’ Or maybe they ’ll finally realise why their uncle insists on showing off the same 10 - inch bronze bird of Jove at every family line gathering ( thatNapoleonic finial , by the way , comes with its own disjoined $ 100,000 reward ) . visitor with info about the steal artworks are encouraged tocontact Amoreat 617 - 278 - 5114 or e-mail reward@gardnermuseum.org .
Either style , pretend to pull off the world ’s enceinte nontextual matter rip-off is a somewhat entertaining way to pass an afternoon . Especially when you get to waltz out the front doors afterwards without face a single consequence . Kind of like the stealer … for now .
