The Gardner Museum and the biggest art heist in history
The Gardner Museum was created with the sole intention of storing and displaying Isabella Stewart Gardener’s private art collection, and, as became quickly apparent in 1990, not with watertight security. Quite tragically, after forming the museum in 1903, Gardener wrote in her will that she wanted her collection on permanent exhibition “for the education and enjoyment of the public forever”. Rather than being associated with her aesthetic vision, it became best known for falling victim to one of the largest and most expensive art heists in history.
Gardner was a prolific curator with a staggering collection of over 7,500 pieces. She wasn’t drawn to specific art forms either; she collected books, paintings, sculptures and ceramics. The breadth of her collection not only made her the envy of other museums but also made art thieves take note. She had an almost impossible list of painters, ranging from Titian, Michelangelo, Botticelli, and Rembrandt. The first ever Henri Matisse to sit in an American collection went to the Gardner Museum.
The vintage charm of the building, also painstakingly designed by Gardener, was one of its biggest weaknesses. People often wrongly assumed it was bought from Venice to Boston because it was modelled on a 15th-century Venetian palace. While the echoes of Europe’s gothic architecture were stunning, they weren’t exactly sound, security-wise. By the time Gardener died in 1924, things were starting to look a bit shoddy.
Most visitors would have looked at it as a sign of its old-fashioned allure, but in certain criminal circles, this was big news. The museum was a sitting duck. The thieves were first spotted by St. Patrick’s Day partygoers at around 12:30am, which turned out to be a crucial detail. Another was that it was one of the guard’s first-ever night shifts.
Dressed as policemen, two men strolled up to the museum buzzers and told the rookie guard they’d heard reports of a disturbance. You can imagine the ensuing panic of the police showing up to your first-ever night-time security stint, so the guard broke protocol and simply invited them in through the employee entrance. They were helped by the St. Patrick’s celebrations because the guard assumed a drunk partier had somehow got in. He didn’t have too long to mull on that because the fake policemen promptly handcuffed him in the basement.
With the guards dealt with, the art thieves got to work, pulling off the most expensive art heist – potentially in history – in only 81 minutes. Some noted that while they were clearly knowledgeable about the art’s worth and the gallery’s state, they didn’t actually pick the most expensive pieces. Mind you, the 13 pieces they did take have been estimated to have been worth around $500million, so their guesses weren’t too off. The two responsible were never identified, and the paintings never returned.
