Who Stole Rembrandt’s ‘Sea of Galilee’ From Boston’s Gardner Museum?
Rembrandt?s ?Storm on the Sea of Galilee? Image by wikipedia
The FBI believes it has identified the thieves who pulled off the 1990 theft of 13 artworks from Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, which stands as the costliest art theft in U.S. history.
Rembrandt?s ?Storm on the Sea of Galilee? Image by wikipedia
Officials, who did not identify the suspects, said on Monday they believed the artworks, which are valued at a total of $500 million, were taken to Connecticut and Philadelphia after the heist.
“We have identified the thieves who are members of a criminal organization with a base in the mid-Atlantic states and New England,” Richard DesLauriers, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Boston office, said in a statement.
The frames that once held works including Rembrandt’s “Storm on the Sea of Galilee” and Edouard Manet’s “Chez Tortoni,” now hang empty on the museum’s walls – in keeping with the precise instructions on the museum’s appearance that its founder left in her will.
On the night of March 18, 1990, two men dressed as police officers arrived at the private museum’s front door and a security guard let them in. The thieves allegedly overpowered both guards, who were found duct-taped to chairs in the museum’s basement the next morning.
The 13 stolen artworks included paintings, drawings, sculpture and a beaker.
The Gardner Museum was founded by Isabella Stewart Gardner, an art collector who died in 1924. Her will contained very specific conditions on the running of the museum, including the arrangement of her collection and free admission to anyone named Isabella, a practice that continues today.
The FBI solved Boston’s other long-running crime mystery in June 2011, when it found accused mobster James “Whitey” Bulger hiding in a seaside California community. Bulger, who is accused of committing or ordering 19 murders, was arrested on a tip that came in after the FBI launched a publicity campaign aimed at tracking him down; he had been on the run since 1994.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30
