1990 art heist
$10m reward in Boston theft expires on Dec 31
BOSTON — A hot tip could still earn you a cool $10 million from a Boston museum desperate to recover a trove of missing masterpieces. But you’d better hurry.
Midnight Dec 31 is the deadline to collect a doubled reward being offered for information leading to the recovery of 13 works worth an estimated $500 million including paintings by Degas, Manet, Rembrandt and Vermeer stolen in 1990 from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. So far, no takers. That’s a big disappointment to the museum and the FBI, which still hasn’t managed to solve the largest art heist in US history. Both had hoped the enhanced reward would spur a flurry of fresh leads. Instead, it’s been like watching paint dry.
“Right now we’re laser-focused on this deadline,” said museum spokeswoman Kathy Sharpless. “Clearly there’s a sense of urgency on our part. We want our paintings back.”
On March 18, 1990, two men masquerading as Boston police officers gained entrance to the museum.
Guards were handcuffed and locked in the basement while the thieves made off with the art.
The missing pieces include Rembrandt’s only known seascape, Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee, and Vermeer’s The Concert, one of fewer than 40 known paintings by the 17th-century Dutch painter.
Twenty-seven years later, there are still empty frames on the walls of the gilded museum where the great works once were displayed.
The reward
For years, the museum has offered a $5 million reward. Last May, trustees upped it to $10 million but only through the end of 2017.
Dutch art sleuth Arthur Brand, who has helped European authorities recover other stolen works, says he has spoken to former police officers and others, and remains convinced he is inching closer to solving the mystery.
“I said from the beginning if it’s not solved by the first of January it will become ... less likely that it will ever be solved,” Brand said.
“We are getting closer. There are so many people working on it that in the end the truth will come out. I’m absolutely certain about that. The only question is, do the paintings still exist?”
Sharpless, the museum spokeswoman, says the gallery will happily write that check for the right tip.
“It only takes one good piece of information to help solve this puzzle.”