AFTER 20 YEARS A RENEWED EFFORT TO FIND ISABELLA STEWART GARDNER MUSEUM ARTWORKS

IT REMAINS ONE OF THE MOST INTRIGUING AND TALKED ABOUT ART HEIST MYSTERY IN THE WORLD. IN THE EARLY HOURS OF 19.MARCH.1990, TWO THIEVES WALKED INTO BOSTON'S RENOWNED ISABELLA STEWART GARDNER MUSEUM DISGUISED AS POLICE OFFICERS, AND BOUND AND GAGGED TWO SECURITY GUARDS USING HANDCUFFS AND DUCT TAPE. FOR THE NEST 81 MINUTES, THEY CASUALLY WALKED ABOUT THE STUNNING ORNATE GALLERIES, REMOVING HISTORIC MASTERPIECES INCLUDING THOSE BY REMBRANDT, VERMEER, DEGAS AND MANET, CUTTING SOME OF THE LARGEST PIECES FROM THE ORNATE GILT FRAMES. BY THE TIME THEY DISAPPEARED, THEY WOULD BE CREDITED WITH THE LARGEST ART THEFT IN MODERN HISTORY, MAKING OFF WITH UPWARDS OF A HALF-BILLION DOLLARS WORTH OF ARTWORKS. NOW, 20 YEARS LATER, INVESTIGATORS ARE MAKING A RENEWED EFFORT TO RECOVER THE PAINTINGS. THE FBI HAS RESUBMITTED DNA SAMPLES FOR UPDATED TESTING, THE MUSEUM IS PUBLICIZING ITS $5 MILLION, NO QUESTIONS ASKED REWARD, AND THE US ATTORNEY'S OFFICE IS OFFERING IMMUNITY. AND RECENTLY TWO LARGE BILLBOARDS, ADVERTISING THE REWARD, WERE PLACED ON MASSACHUSETTS' INTERSTATES 93 AND 495. INVESTIGATORS SAY THEY HAVE RULED OUT SOME OF THE MORE POPULAR THEORIES, FROM THE SPECTER OF A RECLUSE BILLIONAIRE ART COLLECTOR TO THE HAND OF NOTORIOUSLY FAMOUS BOSTONIAN JAMES 'WHITEY' BULGER. MORE LIKELY, INVESTIGATORS SAY, THE TWO WERE HOMEGROWN THIEVES WITH KNOWLEDGE OF THE MUSEUM'S SECURITY SYSTEM, INCLUDING THE ABSENCE OF A DEAD MAN'S SWITCH THAT WOULD HAVE ALERTED POLICE ONCE THE GUARDS BECAME INCAPACITATED. THEY MIGHT HAVE EVEN UNDERESTIMATED THE BREATHTAKING SCOPE OF THEIR CRIME.

THE THEFT BEGAN AROUND 1:24am WHEN THE TWO MEN OVERPOWERED THE GUARDS, ACCORDING TO AN FBI REPORT. THE TWO TOOK THEIR TIME, A FULL 24 MINUTES PASSED BEFORE THEY WERE FIRST PICKED UP ON A MOTION DETECTOR ENTERING THE MUSEUM'S SECOND FLOOR DUTCH ROOM, WHERE THE MOST VALUABLE PAINTINGS WERE SEIZED. INVESTIGATORS BELIEVE THE FIRST ARTWORK TO BE TAKEN WAS REMBRANDT'S ICONIC 'STORM ON THE SEA OF GALILEE', MEASURING 5' X 4' AND DATING BACK TO 1633. THE FRAME WAS LAID ON THE FLOOR WHERE ONE OF THE THIEVES NEATLY SLICED IT FROM ITS FRAME. NEXT WAS 'LANDSCAPE WITH AN OBELISK' BY GOVAERT FLINCK. OTHER STOLEN MASTERPIECES INCLUDED A SECOND REMBRANDT ALSO CUT FROM ITS FRAME, 'A LADY AND GENTLEMAN IN BLACK' FROM 1633. THE MOST VALUABLE PIECE WAS VERMEER'S 'THE CONCERT', AND OIL PAINTING MEASURING ABOUT 2 1/2' X 2' FROM 1660, ONE OF ONLY 36 KNOWN WORKS BY THE DUTCH MASTER AND VALUED AT MORE THAN $250 MILLION. A REMBRANDT SELF-PORTRAIT FROM 1629, ONE OF THE MUSEUM'S MOST VALUABLE PAINTINGS, WAS REMOVED FROM THE WALL, BUT THEN LEFT UNTOUCHED WHILE ONE OF THE THIEVES PATIENTLY UNSCREWED AND REMOVED FROM ITS FRAME A TINY REMBRANDT ETCHING SLIGHTLY LARGER THAN A POSTAGE STAMP. IN ALL, 13 WORKS WERE TAKEN FROM THE MUSEUM. FBI AGENT GEOFFREY KELLY, WHO HAS LED THE INVESTIGATION FOR EIGHT YEARS, SAID IT'S UNLIKELY THE THIEVES DESTROYED THE ART. 'IF IT WERE ANY OTHER KIND OF COMMODITY, I MIGHT FEEL PESSIMISTIC ABOUT RECOVERY BUT IT'S NOT UNCOMMON TO STAY MISSING FOR LONG PERIODS OF TIME', HE SAID. 'IT'S ONE OF THE MOST INTERESTING NOVELS YOU COULD WRITE, EXCEPT IT'S MISSING THAT LAST CHAPTER.'