Posted on 03/19/2013 2:39:52 AM PDT by Daffynition
In a stunning development in the investigation of the world's richest art heist, law enforcement officials said Monday that they know who stole $500 million in masterworks from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, and they disclosed a detail that suggests why they are interested in Hartford mobster Robert Gentile.
"The FBI believes with a high degree of confidence that in the years after the theft, the art was transported to Connecticut and the Philadelphia region, and some of the art was taken to Philadelphia, where it was offered for sale by those responsible for the theft," said Richard DesLauriers, special agent in charge of the FBI's Boston office. "With that same confidence, we have identified the thieves who are members of a criminal organization with a base in the mid-Atlantic states and New England."
Law enforcement officials would not identify any of those they say are responsible for the theft, transport or efforts to sell the art that two thieves disguised as Boston police officers tore from the museum's walls early in the morning of March 18, 1990.
(Excerpt) Read more at courant.com ...
Why the HELL don’t they ARREST the guys they say they KNOW who did it????? What if they FLEE??
He’s in jail already.
The problem is that the pieces were parted up and sold off to international private dealers (my humble opinion). They’d like a full list and get help from various countries.
All of these people who bought the art....simply have it in a very private office and only a couple of people ever venture into that room on a yearly basis. I doubt that the gang ever made more than $5 million off the entire deal.
Good catch by the FBI, too bad they can’t figure out how to catch Odumbo for his fraud on our gubmint and country. Doing that mighgt bring some REAL NEWS.
It’s one thing to know. It’s another thing to be able to prove it beyond a measure of reasonable doubt.
“...the world’s richest art heist...”
“The problem is that ...” the press continues to glamorize stealing of a certain type by labeling it “...the world’s richest art heist...”
They can’t write the scripts for the next Hollywood “Art Heist” thriller (c.f. The Thomas Crown Affair [1 & 2], Entrapment, Ocean’s 12, Once a Thief, etc), so the next best thing is to allude to one in their headlines.
Same goes for jewel thieves and, to a lesser extent, bank robbers.
Stealing is stealing, whether done from a rich individual or institution or from someone ordinary. Having a beautiful insurance detective as your accomplice does not nullify the crime, either.
Neither does having a lawyer, judge or legislator do the “heist” for you using by the stroke of the pen.
It’s my understanding that the harder something is to fence, the less proportional profit the thief has to accept.
Statute of limitations has also run out on the theft itself.
The thieves may have had buyers lined up before they stole it.
Even so, because the buyers have to sit on the stolen property pretty much forever, until the record of the original owners is lost through time, there is no way the buyers are buying it for any ability to profit from the sale.
That will affect the value somebody would pay for it.
That painting is incredible. It's dramatic, realistic, eye catching, and makes incredible use of composition and light to lead your eye around the picture and tell a story. Amazing.
When I was little, my dad always bought me coloring books....and I diligently colored his pin up girls. Mom never caught on.
Based on the evidence at the museum, it is doubtful they were experinced ART thieves. This does not mean they were not experienced theives. They cut the paintings out of their frames according to an article I read yesterday. This would dramatically lower their value. An art thief would not to do this. However, they did remove the tape from the video recorders, but it was already on the computer hard drive. They also were dressed as Boston policemen.
I heard on Boston radio, from the current chief of security for the museum, that they’ve passed the statute of limitations.
I guess sometimes crime does pay.
Sure makes you wonder about mos, doesn’t it?
I used to make sure I visited it, every Sunday afternoon, where we studied by the Gardner atrium, listening to chamber music.
—— That painting is incredible. ——
Absolutely.
I would have been cheering if they stole some modern art.
I want to live long enough to see some investment banker stuck with a worthless Picasso, when people finally realize that the emperor has no clothes.
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