Neither the Louvre nor the Prado: the most expensive museum theft in history took place in 1990

It remains an unsolved mystery, a theft for which no clues have been found. It occurred on March 18, 1990, at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. Two thieves, posing as police officers, easily entered the American museum at night to steal 10 works of art, including a Rembrandt and a Vermeer valued at more than $500 million.

The largest piece stolen was Rembrandt’s “Christ in the Storm on the Sea of ​​Galilee,” which measures 5 x 4 feet. Despite various inquiries and investigations, it was only a few years ago that a new lead led investigators, including the FBI, to the island of Corsica.

In 2005, two Frenchmen, allegedly associated with the Corsican mafia, attempted to sell a Rembrandt and a Vermeer painting. Bob Wittman, a former FBI special agent, participated in the sting operation to acquire the pieces, but the plan failed when the men were arrested for attempting to sell art stolen from the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Nice.

Another lead the FBI pursued was Myles Connor, a notorious art thief who stole a Rembrandt from the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston in 1975. He was the FBI’s prime suspect but was in prison at the time. Experts state that “89 percent of museum thefts are inside jobs.” They add a fact: the theft of Édouard Manet’s work “Chez Tortoni” never triggered a motion detector.

The FBI is still offering a reward for information leading to the recovery of the stolen works. In a podcast from the service itself, you can learn all the details of this historic theft; why the stolen pieces are important to the museum, the art world at large, and the FBI; and how you can help bring the looted masterpieces back to Boston.

Empty Frames as a Souvenir

“We’re talking about the only seascape Rembrandt ever painted. It’s priceless. We’re talking about one of the 36 known Vermeers. We’re talking about two more Rembrandts, works by Manet, Flinck, and Degas. These are huge losses for culture, not just in the United States, but around the world,” they state.

When you enter the museum, one detail stands out: “When people enter the Dutch Room on the second floor of the museum where the Rembrandt and Vermeer were stolen, they are immediately struck by the large, ornate, gilded frames hanging empty because the paintings are missing. Some people believe we have those frames there because Mrs. Gardner’s will says nothing can be changed. Actually, that’s not the case. We left the frames there on purpose. We put them back in 1994, four years after the theft, and we have them there to convey an important message to the public. And that message is that only one thing can hang in each space marked with an empty frame: the painting that was once there. So it’s a reminder of what was. But the frames are also a sign of hope because they convey to the public that what was once there will one day return.”

FBI Boston Division Special Agent Geoff Kelly, who has been investigating the robbery for more than two decades, was assigned to the case in 2002 when he was a rookie agent with the Boston Violent Crimes Squad, but the case had captivated him since before he joined the FBI.

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