Search for artworks from Gardner heist continues 25 years later - Boston Globe (subscription)
The FBI is so confident it knows who stole $500 million worth of masterpieces from Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum , it has repeatedly touted its theory in recent months with PowerPoint presentations at libraries, colleges, and museums. The illustrated whodunit, featuring crime scene photos from the March 18, 1990, heist, points to a local band of petty thieves — many now dead — with ties to dysfunctional Mafia families in New England and Philadelphia. It also suggests they had help from an employee or someone connected to the museum. The clues are voluminous and tantalizing: a suspect who drove a 1988 red Dodge Daytona matching the description of the thieves’ car. RELATED | An open letter: Please return Gardner Museum treasures. Still, 25 years after two men dressed like police officers talked their way into the museum on the Fenway in the early-morning hours after St. Patrick’s Day, tied up two young guards, and vanished with 13 masterworks, it remains one of Boston’s... Gone are two paintings by Rembrandt, both cut from their frames, as well as paintings by Vermeer, Manet, and Flinck. The crime has spawned countless theories involving a dizzying array of suspects, from South Boston gangster James “Whitey” Bulger to a now-deceased California screenplay writer, and been the fodder of numerous books and documentaries. The FBI has searched basements and attics, conducted. Source: www.bostonglobe.com
