Gardner Heist: The True Story of the World's Largest Unsolved Art Theft
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Shortly after midnight on March 18, 1990, two men broke into the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston and committed the largest art heist in history. They stole a dozen masterpieces, including one Vermeer, three Rembrandts, and five Degas. But after thousands of leads-and a $5 million reward-none of the paintings have been recovered. Worth as much as $500 million, the missing masterpieces have become one of the nation's most extraordinary unsolved mysteries.After the death of famed art detective Harold Smith, reporter Ulrich Boser decided to take up the case. Exploring Smith's unfinished leads, Boser travels deep into the art underworld and comes across a remarkable cast of characters, including a brilliant rock 'n' roll thief, a gangster who professes his innocence in rhyming verse, and the enigmatic late Boston heiress Isabella Stewart Gardner herself. Boser becomes increasingly obsessed with the case and eventually uncovers startling new evidence about the identities of the thieves. A tale of art and greed, of obsession and loss, The Gardner Heist is as compelling as the stolen masterpieces themselves.Publishers WeeklyIn the early morning hours of March 18, 1990, thieves posing as cops entered Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and left with a haul unrivaled in the art world, including three Rembrandts and a Vermeer, valued today at $600 million. Boser, a contributing editor at U.S. News and World Report, turned amateur sleuth after the death of a legendary independent fine arts claims adjuster, Harold Smith, who was haunted by the Gardner robbery. Boser carried on Smith's work, pursuing leads as varied as James "Whitey" Bulger's Boston mob and the IRA. Along the way, he visited felons-including the notorious art thief Myles Connor-and Bob Wittman, the FBI's only art theft undercover agent. Boser's rousing account of his years spent collecting clues large and small is entertaining enough to make readers almost forget that, after 18 years, the paintings have still not been found: the museum is offering a $5 million reward for information leading to their return. Photos. (Mar.)Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
1 The Storm on the Sea of Galilee: A Disturbance in the Courtyard 12 Chez Tortoni: The Art Detective 113 A Lady and Gentleman in Black: It Was a Passion 294 The Concert: The Picture Habit 435 Cortege aux Environs de Florence: The Art of the Theft 636 Landscape with an Obelisk: Something That Big 777 Ku: Unfinished Business 898 Three Mounted Jockeys: Infiltrate and Infatuate 1099 Self-Portrait: I Was the One 13310 Program for an Artistic Soiree: Any News on Your Side 15511 Program for an Artistic Soiree II: Where's Whitey? 17112 La Sortie de Pesage: Put My Picture on the Cover 18913 Finial: Like a Spiderweb 209Sources 225Bibliography 243Photo Credits 245Acknowledgments 247Index 249
