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Inside the world’s largest art heist when over $500M of paintings were stolen from a Boston museum
The FBI said it knew who was responsible in 2013, but the works remain missing and the case is still the largest art theft in history.
- On March 18, 1990, two men disguised as police officers entered the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, stealing 13 artworks now valued at more than $500 million, including masterpieces by Vermeer, Rembrandt, Degas, and Manet.
- Investigators long suspected Boston mob associate Robert 'Bobby' Donati and George Reissfelder, with Donati once telling known art thief Myles Connor that stealing the museum's Napoleonic eagle finial would be his 'calling card.'
- Federal investigators faced limited resources, with former investigator Geoff Kelly describing the effort as 'like pulling teeth' to secure support, while agents pursued dead-end tips from a triple murderer known as 'Meatball' and dealt with surveillance distractions.
- Today, empty gilded frames still hang in the museum as silent witnesses to the unsolved theft, and Kelly describes the stolen pieces as 'perfect fugitives,' noting he has 'no doubt they still exist.'
- The robbery remains the largest art theft in history, far outpacing subsequent museum crimes, while museum founder Isabella Stewart Gardner stipulated in her will that the building remain frozen in time, keeping empty frames exactly where stolen works once hung.
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Inside the world's largest art heist as $500 million in masterpieces vanished
Explore the unsolved 1990 Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum heist where 13 masterpieces worth $500 million vanished, tracing suspects, FBI theories, and the missing art's enduring mystery
·Dubai, United Arab Emirates (the)
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Associated Press News+51 Reposted by 51 other sources
Inside the world’s largest art heist when over $500M of paintings were stolen from a Boston museum
A former FBI agent is offering the first detailed account of how investigators identified who carried out the 1990 Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum heist.
·United States
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Coverage Details
Total News Sources56
Leaning Left24Leaning Right7Center24Last UpdatedBias Distribution44% Left, 43% Center
Bias Distribution
- 44% of the sources lean Left, 43% of the sources are Center
44% Left
L 44%
C 43%
13%
Factuality
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