[78] He denied involvement, and in fact dispatched his agents to identify the culprits because the robbery was committed within his area and he wanted to be paid tribute. Abath, a self-described hippie and rock guitarist, was a regular on the night shift. [citation needed] Gentile went to prison for 30 months on drug charges. The Theft | Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum [44] These include The Storm on the Sea of Galilee, his only seascape and the most valuable of his works stolen that night. Now authorities might be one step closer to solving it. We started researching it in 2014, and first officially pitched it that year. Stay up to date on all the latest news from Boston.com. Advertisement: "Jesus, Bobby why didn't you steal the Mona Lisa?" Calantropo recalled asking him. | READ MORE. They overpowered two unsuspecting night security guards, then. We were unable to subscribe you to WBUR Today. [1] [2] [3] The four-part series was directed by Colin Barnicle, who also produced alongside his brother Nick Barnicle. More than 30 years after the legendary art heist, a man has come forward with a possible new clue about the artwork stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, according to The Boston Globe. Stay up to date with everything Boston. In an interview with Boston.com, Barnicle spoke about the most surprising discoveries he made while researching the theft, the one person he wishes wouldve sat down for an interview, and why hes hopeful the docuseries will spur new leads in the long-unsolved crime. I wish I could somehow comfort myself in knowing they're somewhere, Baer said with a sigh, but I don't know if they still exist.. As anybody from the metro Boston area knows, the city operates like a small town. [156] He reported that his "informant" (presumably Youngworth) told him the robbery was pulled off by five men and identified two: Donati was one of the robbers, and Houghton was responsible with moving the art to a safe house. Who is the one person you wish you couldve sat down with who didnt agree to an interview? [81], In 1994, museum director Anne Hawley received an anonymous letter from someone who claimed to be attempting to negotiate a return of the artwork. Follow Boston.com on Instagram (Opens in a New Tab), Follow Boston.com on Twitter (Opens in a New Tab), Like Boston.com on Facebook (Opens in a New Tab), This Is a Robbery: The Worlds Biggest Art Heist. Individuals whose information leads to the restitution of some, but not all, of the works will receive a partial reward. I think if the docuseries doesnt help, then theyre gone. He's determined to return the missing artworks to their rightful home. Amore brought these findings to the media with the hopes that renewed press attention might yield more clues, he says. [158][160][161] The authorities were skeptical of Youngworth's veracity, and only offered partial immunity. Building a museum, however, was not initially one of Isabella's main goals. [25], As the thieves approached the paintings in the Dutch Room, a sensor sounded that was intended to alert when patrons moved too close to artwork, and the thieves smashed the device. Your Privacy Rights [95][96][97], Merlino's associates may have gained knowledge of the museum's weaknesses after gangster Louis Royce cased it as early as 1981. They also picked up a self-portrait sketch by Rembrandt, five sketches by French Impressionist Edgar Degas, a small portrait of a man by douard Manet and an ancient Chinese bronze vessel. They also felt "with that same confidence" that the artwork was transported to Connecticut and Philadelphia in the years following the theft, with an attempted sale in Philadelphia in 2002. Barnicle says he hopes the new series will bring the plight of the paintings to an even wider audiencewith the lingering hope that someone watching might know something new about the arts whereabouts. Recognized as one of the most famous and long-standing art heist investigations, the Gardner Museum heist is one to remember. [152][153] Youngworth led him inside to a storage unit with several large cylinder tubes. Now she's the distinguished curator and lecturer at the Princeton University Art Museum. Now Palmer is releasing his new album, The Concert: Musings for Isabella, to mark the 30th anniversary. What happened at the Gardner Museum in the early hours of March 18, 1990the night that 13 works of art were stolen in the single largest property theft in the world? If you go to grandmas house and she has [Rembrandts The Storm on the Sea of Galilee] on her wall, thats a little bit tougher to hide. [34][35] The last work stolen was Chez Tortoni from the Blue Room on the first floor. An informant and sting operation lead federal agents to a small-time mobster with possible connections to the robbery. Privacy Statement She is also a freelance journalist based in Chicago whose work has appeared in Wired, Washingtonian, the Boston Globe, South Bend Tribune, the New York Times and more. Traditionally used for serving wine in ancient China, the beaker was one of the oldest works in the museum, dating to the Shang Dynasty in the 12th century BC. [93][67] In 2015, the FBI stated both thieves were deceased. [26] Steps in the first room they entered, the Dutch Room on the second floor, were not recorded until 1:48a.m.[25] This was 13 minutes after they had finished subduing the guards, perhaps waiting to ensure that police had not been alerted. Isabella Gardner's Museum: A Legacy of American Philanthropy | [site [114] Gentile maintained he was telling the truth and demanded a retest. [60] In 2017, it was doubled to $10 million with an expiration date set for the end of the year. They hope to solve the mystery of what happened to the stolen artwork and claim the $10 million reward offered by the Gardner Museum. | READ MORE. As the collection and its layout are intended to be permanent, empty frames remain hanging both in homage to the missing works and as placeholders for their return. Today, museumgoers can visit the Gardner in person or take a virtual tour showing what the thieves left behind: empty frames that hang eerily on the walls as a reminder of the loss. [138] He told the authorities he did not know who stole the paintings nor where they could be hidden. Enable breaking news notifications straight to your internet browser. You can try. [26] The only footsteps detected in the room that night were Abath's during the two times when he passed through the gallery on his earlier patrol. [26] A security consultant reviewed the motion-detector equipment several weeks after the theft and determined they were operating correctly. The thieves departed at 2:45 a.m. after making two separate trips to their car with the artwork in tow; the night guards, their mouths duct-taped shut, remained trapped in the museum basement until the police, called in by the next set of guards to arrive at the museum, found them around 8:15 a.m. I was pretty crestfallen, Calantropo told the Globe. Your Privacy Rights [107][111] Gentile denied the accusations,[111] claiming he was never given them and knew nothing of their whereabouts. As alleged sightings of the stolen art are reported, organized crime activity leads to possible suspects and motives for the robbery. Among them was The Concert, one of only 34 known paintings by Johannes Vermeer and thought to be the most valuable unrecovered painting in the world. [1] The museum opened to the public in 1903, and Gardner continued to expand the collection and arrange it until she died in 1924. "This Is a Robbery: a Netflix series examines the world's biggest art heist", "The new Netflix docuseries about history's biggest art heist is weirdly dull", "What Really Happened with the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Art Heist", "This Is a Robbery: The World's Greatest Art Heist: Season 1 (2021)", "This Is a Robbery: The World's Greatest Art Heist Reviews", Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes, Don't F**k with Cats: Hunting an Internet Killer, Break it All: The History of Rock in Latin America, Killer Inside: The Mind of Aaron Hernandez, Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel, Monsters Inside: The 24 Faces of Billy Milligan, Night Stalker: The Hunt For a Serial Killer, Conversations with a Killer: The Jeffrey Dahmer Tapes, Conversations with a Killer: The John Wayne Gacy Tapes, The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=This_Is_a_Robbery&oldid=1148856774, 2020s American documentary television series, Documentary television series about crime in the United States, English-language Netflix original programming, Netflix original documentary television series, Short description is different from Wikidata, Pages containing links to subscription-only content, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 4.0, In Boston 1990, two men dressed as police officers enter the. Researching the case was like learning the game of chess, docuseries director Colin Barnicle tells Town & Countrys Norman Vanamee. You have been subscribed to WBUR Today. First of all, it's such a sensuous painting, she described, Look at the colors. What to Know About the Gardner Museum Heist - Smithsonian Magazine The assailant shot Marks twice in the back of the head and fled the scene. [8][17] He returned to the security room where the fire alarm control panel indicated smoke in multiple rooms. [84] The writer explained that the artwork was being held in a "non-common law country" under climate-controlled conditions. Whether they were lawyers or police officers or even some of the criminals that we had met while my dad went around Boston, driving around writing columns while we were in the backseat. [91][92] He died in 2004. Nora McGreevy [118] Gentile's son explained that the ditch flooded a few years prior and his father was upset about whatever was stored there. [122][123][97] The FBI began investigating him in 1992 when a source told them Turner had access to the paintings. [26][55] The selection of works and the thieves' rough treatment of the artwork has led investigators to believe that the thieves were not experts commissioned to steal particular works. Connor provides essential context about how the underground art market operated during the 1990s. The Netflix series This Is a Robbery takes a close look at the biggest unsolved art heist in modern history. Youngworth. [120] He also explained that the list found in his basement was written up by a criminal trying to broker return of the works from Guarente and was talking to Gentile as an intermediary. We wanted to make sure that we had a four-part series that had a narrative arc where somebody from Des Moines, Iowa, can watch it and somebody from Boston can watch it and feel like they know just as much about the case. 81 MINUTES In the early hours of March 18 a vehicle pulled up near the side entrance of the Museum. Both resembled police sketches of the criminals and died within one year of the heist. [102][103] Royce was in prison at the time of the robbery. [32] The last item taken from the Dutch Room was a bronze gu about 10 inches (25cm) tall. [52] It possibly appeared to be made of gold to the thieves. The Globe and WBURs investigative podcast Last Seen helped publicize the theft upon its debut in 2018. While this unsolved crime captivates so many, Amore told me, in reality, most people wouldn't recognize the artworks if they saw them somewhere out in the world even law enforcement. [109] She claimed that when her husband got sick with cancer in the early 2000s, he gave the paintings to Gentile for safekeeping. [150][145][151] The raids caught the attention of journalist Tom Mashberg, who began talking with Youngworth in 1997 about the theft. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. It has focused primarily on the Boston Mafia, which was in the midst of an internal gang war during the period. He removed one painting from its tube, unfurled it, and showed it to Mashberg under flashlight. He assumed that some type of malfunction had occurred and disabled the panel before returning to his patrol. This Is a Robbery: The Worlds Biggest Art Heist debuts Wednesday, April 7 on Netflix. [147] Like Donati, Houghton also died within two years of the robbery, though from an illness rather than murder. He has composed and recorded 12 pieces of music inspired by the Gardner Museum . While the Gardner story is more well-known in the Boston area, the theft will soon become familiar to a worldwide audience thanks to This Is a Robbery: The Worlds Biggest Art Heist, a new Netflix docuseries that arrives Wednesday on the streaming platform. [158], The veracity of Youngworth's claims and the authenticity of the painting shown to Mashberg is disputed. (Bobby Guarente died in 2004 and Elene died in 2018.). People with information about the stolen artworks should contact security chief Amore at [emailprotected]. [86] To establish credence, the writer conveyed information only known by the museum and FBI at the time. And then something happened in August 2019 I dont know what but they just completely backed off. They appeared to have abandoned the effort, as some screws were not removed, and they ultimately took only the exposed eagle finial atop the flagpole. Gardner created the museum so her collection would be permanently exhibited for the education and enjoyment of the public forever. As stipulated in Gardner's will, nothing can change in her museum. A timeline of the Gardner Museum art heist - The Boston Globe Per Robert M. Poole of Smithsonian magazine, the seemingly random assortment of stolen goods has confused authorities and journalists for decades. Long-time Globe readers will run into familiar names and faces while watching as well. By the time. I wont say that the genre of true crime caught up to it, but if we had gotten the green light to do this in 2014, it probably wouldnt have been as good. They overpowered two unsuspecting night security guards, then duct-taped their victims to a pipe and a workbench in the museum basement. All have denied any knowledge or have provided leads that proved fruitless, despite the offer of reward money and reduced or canceled prison sentences if they had disclosed information leading to recovery of the artworks. [8][16] Before completing his rounds, Abath stopped at the side entrance of the museum, briefly opening the side door and shutting it again without informing Hestand. Would they know that the parade always happened on a Sunday? We needed to go into those kinds of details, but we also wanted to drill the story down to its essence. 2023 Smithsonian Magazine Cookie Settings, The Real History Behind the Archimedes Dial in 'Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny', See Inside One of Americas Last Pencil Factories, Why Fireworks Scare Some Dogs but Not Others, Why We Set Off Fireworks on the Fourth of July, An Archaeologist's Take on What Indiana Jones Gets Rightand WrongAbout the Field. [145][146] Connor was in jail at the time of the heist,[147] but he believed Donati and criminal David Houghton were the masterminds. [72] The guards and witnesses in the street described one thief as about 5feet 9inches (1.75m) to 5feet 10inches (1.78m) in his late 30s with a medium build, and the other as 6feet 0inches (1.83m) to 6feet 1inch (1.85m) in his early 30s with a heavier build. [15][18] He was not aware of any disturbance, but he surmised that a St. Patrick's Day reveler may have had climbed over the fence, causing someone to report it to the police. [5], For the series, review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported an approval rating of 81% based on 16 reviews, with an average rating of 7.4/10. In the early hours of March 18, 1990, one of the worlds most lucrative art heists took place in Boston. Among the purloined art was Rembrandts The Storm on the Sea of Galilee, the only Rembrandt seascape in existence, and Vermeers The Concert. [21] They approached Abath at the security desk and asked if anyone else was in the museum. In that work, the artist depicted Christ and the 12 apostles frantically trying to bring their small, wave-tossed boat under control. Courtesy of . The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Heist. [94] Though the FBI did not publicly identify any individuals, sources familiar with the investigation said they were associated with a gang from Dorchester. [42] In the late 2000s, some art dealers suggested that the total value of the stolen artwork could be $600 million. As anybody from the metro Boston area kind of knows, the city operates like a small town. Nora McGreevy is a former daily correspondent for Smithsonian. [116], A few days later, the FBI stormed Gentile's house in Manchester with a search warrant. The pair proceeded to remove 13 treasured artworks on display in the lavishly decorated gallery, smashing the protective glass of two Rembrandt paintings and cutting the canvases from their gilded frames. [34][35] They also took five Degas sketches from the room. [130] Investigators believe he looks similar to the slimmer man in the police sketches. Like, Will people know where the museum is in comparison to the parade in South Boston? A Tantalizing Clue Emerges in the Unsolved Gardner Museum Art Heist All the new movies and TV shows streaming this month. [22] Hestand walked into the room around this time and the taller thief turned him toward the wall and handcuffed him. [112] Federal authorities indicted Gentile on drug charges in 2012, likely in an attempt to pressure Gentile for information about the Gardner works. Without asking for directions, they led the guards into the basement, where the guards were handcuffed to a steam pipe and workbench. [78] McShane's investigation of Bulger and the IRA did not produce any evidence to tie them to the theft. However, he recently recounted what transpired that day for the FBI, according to the paper. After the robbery, Hawley had an idea for what to do with the empty frames the crooks left behind. Courtesy Netflix. Terms of Use The investigators also said that they suspected the art was transported via organized crime networks to Connecticut and the Philadelphia region, where the thieves attempted to sell the works on the black market. [74] One of Abath's colleagues told journalists that if Abath had opened the door routinely as he maintains, supervisors would have noticed him doing so from their computer printouts and stopped the behavior. This [show] is like the biggest wanted poster in the world.. A little more than a year later, Donati was attacked outside his Revere home, according to the paper. Bizarrely, the burglars attempted to remove the flag of Napoleons Imperial Guard from its frame but failed to do so, instead settling for a bronze, eagle-shaped finial, or ornament. For years Calantropo was reluctant to speak about the conversation with Donati, fearing for his safety. [159] Youngworth supplied paint chips to Mashberg, and federal authorities reported that they were indeed from Rembrandt's era, but did not match oils used for The Storm on the Sea of Galilee. Wed read affidavits or judicial write-ups, and some of the names that came out of it were people we knew. [100][101] In 1982, when undercover FBI agents were investigating Royce and his associates for an unrelated art theft, they learned of their interest in robbing the Gardner Museum and warned the museum of the gang's plan. [115] In the more intimate meeting, Gentile maintained that he did not have any information. For Anthony Amore, director of security and chief investigator at the Gardner Museum, the empty ornate wooden frames haunt him like ghosts. [139] In his 2001 trial, he claimed entrapment, that the FBI let the Loomis Fargo plot proceed so they could pressure him for information about the Gardner paintings. Wealthy American art collector Isabella Stewart Gardner constructed her namesake museum out of her private, Venetian palazzoinspired home in the hope that it would provide for the education and enjoyment of the public forever. But after her death in 1924, the museum fell into financial disrepair. Two men in police uniforms pushed the Museum buzzer, stated they were responding to a disturbance, and requested to be let in. A new Netflix documentary, 'This Is a Robbery: The World's Biggest Art Heist' looks at the famous 1990 crime with a new approach. [170] The two were seen at a social club in Revere shortly before the robbery with a bag of police uniforms. If he knew information about the theft, at no point did he opt to share it, which would have reduced his sentence or freed him from prison. [150][145] One night in August 1997, Youngworth called Mashberg and told him he had proof he could return the Gardner paintings under the right conditions. [147], Acting on Connor's lead, the FBI opened a case on Youngworth and conducted raids on his home and antique store properties in the 1990s. Now retired, Hawley hopes she lives long enough to see it again along with the 12 other stolen pieces including paintings by Rembrandt, Flinck and Manet. 'This Is a Robbery' on Netflix: All the Artworks Stolen in the Gardner Rembrandt has long been curator Ronni Baer's favorite painter. Receive the latest news and breaking updates, straight from our newsroom to your inbox. [168] He claimed to have buried the artwork and would start a negotiation for his release once the investigation cooled down. [78] Both organizations had agents in Boston at the time and both had previously demonstrated the capability to organize art heists. I spent basically five years calling his lawyer every week. Advertising Notice Other area museums had fail-safe systems that required night watchmen to place hourly phone calls with the police to indicate that conditions were normal. We started shooting in 2016, and in 2017, we made a pilot and pitched it everywhere. Experts were puzzled by the choice of artwork, as more valuable works were left untouched. He even has a full-sized reproduction of The Concert hanging in his bedroom. The movement data was also captured on a hard drive, which remained untouched. His body turned up days later in the trunk of his Cadillac. As she connected the 387-year-old painting to today, she added, People react in so many different ways and the painting is a very emotional thing. Even the unsolved, sensational heist of 1990, in which several of the museum's master paintings were . Whether they were lawyers or police officers or even some of the criminals that we had met while my dad went around Boston, driving around writing columns while we were in the backseat. Guards admitted two men posing as police officers responding to a disturbance call, and the thieves bound the guards and looted the museum over the next hour. A new Netflix docuseries revisits the infamous Isabella Stewart Gardner He remains the only living person who likely has firsthand knowledge of the 1990 heist. Today the stolen items would be worth about $500 million. March 18 marks the unsolved crime's 30th anniversary and the notorious event continues to take a cultural and emotional toll. In another wrinkle, Abaths role in the drama once again came under scrutiny in 2015, when the United States Attorneys office in Massachusetts released a rare security camera video. Abath told investigators that he could not recall the incident or recognize the man, and the FBI requested the public's assistance. [27][28][29] They also removed a large Rembrandt self-portrait oil painting from the wall but left it leaning against a cabinet. [152] That night, Youngworth picked up Mashberg from the Boston Herald offices and drove him to a warehouse in Red Hook, Brooklyn. [170], .mw-parser-output .geo-default,.mw-parser-output .geo-dms,.mw-parser-output .geo-dec{display:inline}.mw-parser-output .geo-nondefault,.mw-parser-output .geo-multi-punct,.mw-parser-output .geo-inline-hidden{display:none}.mw-parser-output .longitude,.mw-parser-output .latitude{white-space:nowrap}422017N 710556W / 42.338N 71.099W / 42.338; -71.099. During the retest he said Elene had once shown him the missing Rembrandt self-portrait, to which the polygraph machine indicated he was telling the truth. 'I literally wanted to throw up': Family members possibly affected by Harvard morgue indictments speak out, Prosecutors detail rape allegations against N.J. lawyer Matthew Nilo. Hey dad, can you help me return the Picasso I stole? It isn't the same thing, Hawley mused, It's like reading about a kiss instead of having a kiss.. RT @FBI: On this episode of Inside the #FBI, learn about the historic Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Heist and why the stolen pieces matter to the museum, the art . Learn About the Theft | Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum [3] This financial strain left the museum in poor condition; it lacked a climate control system and an insurance policy and was in need of basic building maintenance. By 1990, the museums security flaws were common knowledge among Bostons criminal elite, making it a bit of a sitting duck for a heist, per the Guardian. Receive the latest news and breaking updates, straight from our newsroom to your inbox. [7] The museum's security policy required that one guard would patrol the galleries with a flashlight and walkie-talkie while the other would sit at the security desk. [30][29] Investigators believe that the thieves may have considered it too large to transport, potentially because it was painted on wood and not canvas like the others. [36], The next guard shift arrived later in the morning and realized that something was amiss when they could not establish contact with anyone inside for admittance. Sadly Vermeer's lush detail, brushstrokes, rendering of modulated light and texture have to be imagined, too, because the book's reproduction is tiny and flat. As revelers celebrated St. Patricks Day around the city, two men disguised as Boston Police officers made off with 13 works from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum worth a total of $500 million. Gentlemen, this is a robbery, the criminals announced. [104] Royce shared his plan with others and believes associate Stephen Rossetti may have ordered the robbery or shared it with someone else. Please try again later. [142], Criminal Bobby Donati was murdered in 1991 in the midst of a gang war within the Patriarca crime family. [126][127] Another associate arrested in the drug sting told authorities about Turner's involvement in several break-ins, but never mentioned the Gardner heist. [26][24] While on patrol, Abath briefly opened and closed a side door,[16] a move that some believe could have been a signal to the thieves parked outside. 2023 Smithsonian Magazine [59] This was increased to $5 million in 1997. Empty frames at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum are a tangible reminder of the 1990 theft. [142] Merlino died in prison in 2005. The FBI believes that the robbery was planned by a criminal organization. [80] According to Charley Hill, a retired art and antiquities investigator for Scotland Yard, Bulger gave the Gardner works to the IRA and they are most likely in Ireland. Directed by Colin Barnicle, This Is a Robbery is an episodic look at the entire saga, jumping back and forth through time to offer up theories, identify suspects, and even show up at the courthouse as one of the heists suspects walks out of jail more than a decade earlier than expected.