Tipsters: We Know Gardner Heist Thief - Daily Beast
On March 18, 1990, just after 1 a. m. , while the rest of Boston was wrapping up their Saint Patrick’s Day celebrations, two art thieves dressed as police officers, knocked on the door of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. After the robbery, two museum guards were found tied-up, and 13 pieces of art, at an estimated $500 million value, were gone. The pillaged masterpieces include one of only a few dozen known paintings by Johannes Vermeer, Manet’s “Chez Tortoni,” and several of Rembrandt’s paintings, including his only seascape, “The Storm on the Sea of Galilee. In the last two and a half decades, the chase to track down the stolen art has led investigators from the eccentric museum—a Venetian-style palace which once served as Mrs. Gardner’s residence—through the rabbit holes of Boston’s organized crime scene to cartels and black art market rings in Europe. Meanwhile, although he has never faced charges and has repeatedly claimed his innocence, speculation has swirled around the guard who let the officers in: Richard Abath, a 23-year-old jamband-playing music school dropout with long, brown, curly hair. This week, investigators may finally have a clue from those pawnshop dealers that could crack the decades-old case, and potentially guide them to the missing art. Source: www.thedailybeast.com
