The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Robbery - Boston, MA
Posted by: 
neoc1
N 42° 20.330 W 071° 05.930
19T E 327101 N 4689530
The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 280 The Fenway in Boston, was victim of one of the largest unsolved art thefts in history.
Waymark Code: WMDGK4
Location: Massachusetts, United States
Date Posted: 01/13/2012
Views: 4
On the early morning of March 18, 1990, two thieves, disguised as City of Boston police officers, gained access to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and selectively removed thirteen priceless works of art from its galleries. The thieves handcuffed both guards and led them into the basement. There they were secured to pipes and their hands, feet, and heads were bound with duct tape. In the later morning, the next shift of security guards discovered the robbery.
The museum has identified the stolen items as:
"Rembrandt’s Storm on the Sea of Galilee (1633), A Lady and Gentleman in Black (1633) and a Self-Portrait (1634); Vermeer’s The Concert (1658–1660); and Govaert Flinck’s Landscape with an Obelisk (1638); as well as a Rembrandt etching on paper, and a Chinese vase, or Ku, all taken from the Dutch Room on the second floor. Also stolen from the second floor were five drawings by the Impressionist artist Edgar Degas and a finial from the top of a pole support for a Napoleonic silk flag, both from the Short Gallery. Edouard Manet’s Chez Tortoni (1878–1880) was taken from the Blue Room on the first floor."
The perpetrators have not been identified and the artworks are still missing. The value of the art was estimated to be $500,000,000. The investigation is still open with the The Gardner Museum offering a reward up to $5,000,000 for information leading to the recovery of the stolen artwork.
Date of crime: 03/18/1990
Public access allowed: yes
Fee required: yes
Web site: [Web Link]
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