Empty Frames and Other Oddities from the Unsolved Gardner Museum Heist | Hacker News Reader

Empty Frames and Other Oddities from the Unsolved Gardner Museum Heist

nytimes.com

53 pointsCaiero29 comments

As the article notes, what is remarkable about the Gardner Museum thefts is the quantity of items stolen _and_ that none of them have turned up. A similar crime is de Kooning's Woman-Ochre in 1985. Its theft and recovery in 2017 is an interesting story[1]. Either someone is holding these artworks privately in some remote area and it's an incredibly well kept family secret or, in my sole opinion, the works have been destroyed or damaged beyond recovery i.e. disposed into the Boston Harbor.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woman-Ochre#Theft

That was absolutely fascinating to read. Thanks for sharing. What an interesting story.

Neighbors wondered how they could afford so much travel. I also wondered how they had a home on 20 acres on public salaries. Gotta wonder if they stole other art and sold it on the black market.

A more in-depth story which you’ll enjoy.

https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/arts-letters/articles/de-...

I lived in Boston in 1990. A friend of a friend worked as a security guard at the Gardner and took the night off that night (either to party or perform in his band) and someone else took his place. My friend said the FBI was "up his ass" as a result to determine if he was part of the caper.

Regardless, everyone thought it was something related to the New England mob, which was still powerful at the time. But nobody squealed with verifiable information, which seems strange considering the feds and state police were actively targeting the mafia (thanks to help from Whitey Bulger and his pals in the FBI) and knowledge of the heist would have been an opportunity to lessen law enforcement pressure and/or reduced sentences during subsequent prosecutions.

organized crime seems like the most likely culprit . you would need a connection of some sort to have any hope of reselling it, and also to coordinate the whole thing .

https://archive.is/WWhat

Classic slug for this story.

In the pre-dawn hours of March 18, 1990, following a festive St. Patrick’s Day in Boston, two men dressed as police officers walked into the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and walked off with an estimated $500 million in art treasures. Despite efforts by the local police, federal agents, amateur sleuths and not a few journalists, no one has found any of the 13 works lost in the largest art theft in history, including a rare Vermeer and three precious Rembrandts.

The art hasn't resurfaced probably because it was never sold. "biggest art height" is based on some arbitrary valuations for a totally illiquid market. It could have just been $5 billion or $50 million . Reselling stolen art is close to impossible...pennies on the dollar is optimistic. Also if anyone did come forward with the artwork, they would immediately be deemed a suspect (I dunno how the statute of limitations would come into play here).

The tying up of the guard constitutes kidnapping under New York law, and the fact that they did so pursuant to another felony (grand theft) means that there is no statute of limitations on this case. Everything else about the case is past the statute of limitations, though.

> But other items that were stolen were not nearly of the same caliber: a nondescript Chinese metal vase; a fairly ordinary bronze eagle from atop a flagpole; and five minor sketches by Degas. The thieves walked past paintings and jade figurines worth millions, including a drawing by Michelangelo, yet they spent some of their 81 minutes inside fussing to free the vase from a tricky locking mechanism.

Would love to find this out. Were the more expensive pieces under increased security?

No, they weren't under extra security. The thieves seemed to not understand or not care about the value of what they stole versus what they left behind.

The Degas sketches were very nice and extremely accessible. I mean, I'd have left with them. They're the sort of things you could hang around the house and enjoy and folks wouldn't immediately finger you for an art heist. Perfect, really.

That may indicate it was more of a crime of happenstance which are the hardest to track down, because there's no planning, no trail, and with two people there might not even be anyone left alive.

I like the explanation that the thieves were time travelers from the future, and they knew that these specific items - and no others - were the difference between future victory and defeat.

someone just watched the recent Indiana Jones movie...

> including a rare Vermeer

What does this mean? Wasn't Vermeer a painter, and therefore all of his works were one of a kind (unless he painted copies)?

Vermeer made only low dozens of paintings as opposed to, say, Monet, who made thousands, so likely they just mean something like “including one of Vermeer’s paintings, which are rare”

I'd read this as "rare because it is a Vermeer" rather than "rare for* a Vermeer".

It's just the opposite of a well-done Vermeer.

Those are the ones people pour ketchup on, I understand, a scandalous activity.

You sound like a fun person to stop to ask if you have any dijon mustard.

Many of the “majors” had a factory in which the “master” or headline figure might sketch out a painting, have it filled out by someone else, and then perhaps be finished off by the master. Sometimes multiple versions of the same painting were produced.

The Vermeers and Van Goughs didn’t have all that infrastructure (and Vermeer painted little, or at least little survives)

And he only painted about 35 works it seems, which basically means all are rare.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_paintings_by_Johanne...

Vermeer is the "shiny Pokemon card" of painters. Some museum recently announced they'd gathered a temporary collection of 20-odd Vermeers. Tickets for the show were sold out within minutes - a year ahead of time. Normally if you wanted to assemble a "complete collection" of Vermeers you've seen, you'd have to travel to like 10 different countries. Guys online talking about having no hesitation paying for a ten hour flight and two-day vacation for the sole reason of seeing this exhibit.

> Some museum recently announced they'd gathered a temporary collection of 20-odd Vermeers.

That would be Rijks in 2023[0], they had 28 Vermeers on display, tickets sold out within two months, half a year ahead of time.

[0] https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/whats-on/exhibitions/vermeer

There's only ~34 paintings firmly attributed to Vermeer, and - fun fact - 11 of them are on 5th Avenue in New York (between The Met and The Frick).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_paintings_by_Johannes_...

5 + 3 = 8 are supposed to be on the Fifth, with additional 4 in Washington, DC, unless there's some exhibition going on currently that I'm unaware of.

Oops, you're right - I counted w/ Ctrl-F and that's not accurate with references.

I dont know about the details of this particular painting, but Rarity here could refer to something like the type of paint used, the size, or even the subject matter or time period.

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