The Isabella Stewart Gardner Heist
 
Shortly after midnight on March 18, 1990, two men dressed as police officers broke into the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston and stole 13 masterpieces including five Degas, three Rembrandts, and a Vermeer. The plundered works are worth an estimated $500 million today, and the theft remains the largest unsolved art heist in history.
Before he died in 2005, Harold Smith, one of the world’s greatest art detectives, believed that he was a breath away from cracking the seventeen year-old case. For the Smithsonian Books imprint of HarperCollins, I plan to tell the story of Harold Smith and the lost Gardner paintings and chronicle my attempt to pick up where Smith left off and return the paintings to the museum’s walls.
Here are images of the stolen Gardner paintings:
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
   GOVAERT FLINCK, LANDSCAPE WITH AN OBELISK.
 
       DEGAS, CORTEGE AUX ENVIRONS DE FLORENCE.
 
DEGAS, THREE MOUNTED JOCKEYS.
 
DEGAS, LA SORTIE DU PELAGE.
 
DEGAS, PROGRAM FOR AN ARTISTIC SOIREE
 
DEGAS, PROGRAM FOR AN ARTISTIC SOIREE
 
CHINESE BRONZE BEAKER OR "KU", Chinese, SHANG DYNASTY, 1200-1100 BC.
 
 
 
 
VERMEER, THE CONCERT.
REMBRANDT, THE STORM ON THE SEA OF GALILEE.
REMBRANDT, A LADY AND GENTLEMAN IN BLACK.
REMBRANDT, SELF PORTRAIT.
MANET, CHEZ TORTONI
There is a $5 million reward for information leading to the recovery of the Gardner art works.
 
Please contact me if you have any tips or leads about the Gardner theft at ulrich @ boser.org with the text “Gardner theft” in the header of the email. You can also call my toll-free tips line at 1-888-292-9380.
 
Your anonymity will be protected. Copies of the images can be found below.