Isabella Stewart Gardner
Posted on 10/22/2006 10:00:31 PM PDT by FLOutdoorsman
Investigators in the US have launched a fresh attempt to solve the world's biggest art robbery, in which hundreds of millions of dollars worth of works by Rembrandt, Vermeer and others were stolen from Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.
Eric Ives, the head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's major theft unit, said he planned to appeal for information about the 1990 theft through a billboard campaign next year across the US and possibly even in London.
The plan highlights the FBI's tightening focus on art crimes and its enthusiasm to solve a notorious case that has dogged its reputation for more than 15 years.
Mr Ives said in an interview that the planned Gardner information campaign followed an FBI internal review of the case last year. The billboard drive would be a "major undertaking" and could go international "if my resources are commensurate with my ideas", he added.
"We have put in a lot of work [on the Gardner case] over the years," he said. "We have had a lot of tips. But we have not solved it - and we want to solve it."
(Excerpt) Read more at ft.com ...
I don't even remember this. 15 years ...so that that would be 2001. Before or after 9/11?
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Yeah, finding insured art is more important than catching al queda cells in the U S.... : )
Paging Nathan Adler....
1990 is before 9/11/2001. It has been a long road, but yes, 9/11 was only five years ago.
Hello, Hillary?
Art Ping
Isabella Stewart Gardner
lol! Must be late. Thanks, bud. :)
and A Lady & Gentleman in Black:
As an indication of just how dumb they were, the idiots probably seriously diminished the value of these works by very crudely ripping the canvases out of their frames.
And this was the Vermeer they took, The Concert:
A fascinating article about this is at at the Court TV site where they interview a notorious art thief Myles Connor about the crime. The statute of limitations is up for this heist - the ToMA law wasn't passed til after.
[The] Gardner case spurred passage of the Theft of Major Artwork statute, making it a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison for stealing any museum art more than a century old or worth at least $100,000.
An interesting factoid in light of the recent discussion here on FR about the Barnes Museum founder's will is there also:
"[Empty] frames that continue to hang on the walls serve as a constant reminder...Museum administrators had little choice in leaving the empty frames for visitors to see. Isabella Stewart Gardner herself left specific instructions about how the museum should be maintained upon her death. Gardner willed that nothing in the collection, which includes approximately 2,500 pieces spanning 30 centuries, be changed."
Connor associate & longtime suspect William Youngworth, the smalltime hood cited in this Court TV article who took Boston Herald reporter Tom Mashberg on the ride to "see" the stolen paintings (later deemed fakes by the FBI) contributed his version of events in rant format, amazingly enough, to a local art blog, Big Red & Shiny.
Also, the FBI's page about the Gardner theft is here if anybody would like to submit a tip online. ;-)
Thanks for posting this, FLOutdoorsman! And thanks for pinging. woofie.
That's a Sargent, isn't it?
Yes. I'm not a great art connoisseur but IMHO this is an amazing picture on many levels.
Unfortunately he hated doing it (referred to them as "paughtraits"). He loved watercolors, and of course they're gorgeous too, much freer.
They had to find something else to milk until retirement that doesn't involve real work.
Besides, I remember the speculation shortly after the theft that the stuff is private collections in Japan.
Instead of digging up dirt in various podunk places in the US, they get to spend weeks in Japan trying to
get interviews with everybody known to collect masterpieces. And after Japan gets old, it's on to another
country on the taxpayers' dimes.
In a way, it's ironic. The story is that Isabella didn't acquire her collection on the up and up, either.
... all the way to the bank probably. Whatever Mrs. Gardner paided him, she got her money's worth.
My favorite:
I just saw an excellent exhibit in Madrid on the paintings of Sargent and Sorrolla (both fine portraitists but also very dedicated to other things). Interesting connection.
The story is that they may be in private collections someplace or they were destroyed by the thieves. Great story though I just saw an indepth article on this recently somewhere.
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