Isabella Stewart Gardner
Art Heist
Introduction:
In 1901, The Gardner Museum, located in Boston, Massachusetts, was built to show the 1500+ art pieces collected by Isabella Stewart Gardner (1840-1924). On the 18th of March, 1990, 13 works of art were stolen from The Gardner Art Museum, the total worth of which was over $500 million dollars.
The Robbery
Around midnight, two unknown men in fake police officer uniforms driving a red Dodge Daytona pulled up close to the entrance of the museum. They waited in the car so they wouldn’t be noticed by a group of people leaving a Saint Patrick’s Day party nearby. An hour later, at 1 AM., security guard Richard Abeth had just returned to the front desk after switching positions with another guard, the only other person in the building at the time. Richard Abeth was a performer by day, so he often arrived at his second job intoxicated; but to this day, Abeth insists that he was completely sober on that particular night. Around 12:54 AM, a fire alarm went off on the third floor of the museum, though when they looked into it, there wasn’t a fire. At 1:24 AM, one of the two “Police officers” pushed the buzzer near the front door and claimed that they were responding to a disturbance call in the courtyard of the museum. To Abeth, a disturbance call made sense since there were Saint Patrick’s Day parties happening around town, and understandably, he wanted to avoid getting arrested that night. Although Abeth was told not to let in uninvited guests, he wasn’t sure if this rule applied to police officers, so he let them in.
When the two “officers” entered the room, one of them said,
“You look familiar. I think we have a Default Warrant on you. Come out here and give us some identification.”
Abeth stepped out from behind the desk, the problem with being the fact that it was where the only button that would alert the police immediately was located. Abeth was asked for his ID and was ordered to face the wall, then he was handcuffed. When Abeth realized he wasn’t frisked before being handcuffed, and that one of the police officers mustaches was fake, it dawned on him that this was a possible robbery. Minutes later, the second security guard arrived, and was also “arrested”. When asked why they were being arrested, one of the robbers replied with,
“You’re not being arrested. This is a robbery.”
The mouths, hands and feet of the two guards were tied with duct tape, then the two robbers proceeded to put them in the basement of the museum, where they handcuffed them to poles. Later, motion detectors in the museum showed that the robbers went to the second floor and split up, gathering as many art pieces as they could. When one of the robbers approached the piece “Self Portrait” By Rembrandt, an alarm went off, which they quickly smashed. They took the painting off its hooks, but when they attempted to remove the wooden panel out of its frame, they failed and left it lying on the ground.
Self-portrait, by Rembrandt
At 2:28 AM, the robbers checked up on the two guards, who were still in the same spots, and then removed and smashed tapes who caught them taking the artwork. 13 minutes later, they got ready to leave. They loaded up the art in the car and then drove off. There were witnesses who claimed to see the robbers sitting in the car.
At around 6:45 – 8:10 AM, The two morning shift guards arrived, but they weren’t able to enter the museum. At around 8:30 AM, the police arrived and discovered the two guards in the basement. When Abeth was questioned about what the robbers looked like, he said that he couldn’t remember, and he said that the police sketches “were awful”.
Police sketches of the robbers
But we’re not done just yet…
In April of 1994, The museum received a letter from an unknown sender. This sender claimed to know the location of the art, and in it was written,
“The art is in a safe and contained environment, but they had to hurry because a buyer in another country was looking to purchase the work and claiming legal ownership.”
The buyer wasn’t aware that the pieces were stolen.
The unknown sender asked for $2.6 million dollars, and the museum agreed. They received a second letter, saying that they were glad that the museum was interested in negotiating, but was “discouraged” by the law, and were afraid that the museum would get the “middle man” arrested.
No one has heard from the sender since.
The Theories:
Theory 1
The first theory is that a man called Brian McDevitt is in charge of the crime. McDevitt was responsible for an art robbery in the 1980’s, and many agree that it was quite similar to the Gardner Museum theft. McDevitt was held a few months in jail for “attempted robbery”, not succeeding completely because of getting stuck in traffic. Note: McDevitt lived a 10 minute drive away from the museum at the time of the robbery.
Theory 2
Some people think that this robbery was an inside job, and this would explain the robbers’ knowledge of the button behind the front desk (the one that alerts the police) as well as their knowledge about which artworks did not have anti-theft devices that would stop the robbers from taking the pieces. The FBI did not list Richard Abeth as a suspect, however, because of how bad Abeth was at his job. There was video evidence of Abeth letting in another unauthorised visitor in the night before the robbery, although Abeth says he doesn’t remember anything about this visitor either. Sketchy, Right?
Theory 3
The third theory comes from a private investigator called Arthur Brand, who was claimed to be an expert in solving art crimes on an international scale. In 1991, Arthur obtained images of the stolen pieces in a form of storage somewhere in Holland. In 2010, Brand heard that the pieces belonged to someone who worked in the Irish Republican Army. He later theorised that the art was stolen at the time by small-time thieves, who sold the pieces to US gang members, who then (possibly in the mid 1990’s) sold or shipped the pieces off to IRA (Irish Republican Army) Commanders.
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The FBI states that they know, with high confidence, who stole the pieces, but they are unsure of where the art is currently located.
Theory 4
The fourth and final theory is that Bobby Donati was responsible for the crime. Another art thief known as Myles J. Connor Jr. claimed that Donati was “eyeing” the museum in the 80’s. Before the robbery shortly, Donati was seen at a nightclub with a sack of police officer costumes. However, Donati was murdered in 1991 and thus, didn’t face any charges.
Conclusion
In conclusion, all that can be said about the Gardner Art Museum theft is that it is a complete mystery. There are a few leads and theories that can help with identifying the robbers or where the art is located, but there aren’t many with concrete evidence. Whether it was a bigtime robber, an inside job, small time thieves or just two ‘gangsters’, The Garner Art Theft is still a mystery that’s unfolding…
