In the very early hours of March 18, 1990, a vehicle pulled up near the side entrance of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, Massachusetts. Two men wearing police uniforms pushed the museum’s buzzer and said they were responding to a disturbance. The guard on duty let them in, which broke protocol because he let them in the employee entrance. The fake officer had the guard step away from his desk. The guard and a second security guard were handcuffed and tied up in the basement of the museum. Eighty-one minutes later, the thieves left with thirteen of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum’s works of art.
The thieves’ movements were recorded on the museum’s motion detectors. In the Dutch Room, they cut Rembrandt’s Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee and A Lady and Gentleman in Black from their frames. Vermeer’s The Concert and Flinck’s Landscape with an Obelisk were removed from their frames. They pulled an ancient Chinese bronze Gu, or beaker, from a table, and took a small self-portrait etching by Rembrandt from the side of a chest. Five Degas drawings and a bronze eagle finial were stolen. A Manet was also taken. After making two trips to their vehicle with the artwork, they left the museum.
The return of the Gardner’s works remains a top priority. There is a continuous active investigation with the FBI and the US Attorney’s Office. There is a $10 million reward for information leading to the direct recovery of all 13 works of art in good condition, and a separate $100,000 reward for the Napoleonic finial.
Two empty frames remain hanging in the museum as a placeholder for the missing works and as symbols of hope awaiting their return.
Note: The 13 works stolen are valued at $500 million.