Sunday, March 24, 2013

Greatest Heist In Art History...Solved?



Rick Abath used to work the night shift at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. He would arrive around 11:30 p.m. and spend the night patrolling the halls of one of the finest museums in the state.

On the night shift, only two young watchmen were responsible for guarding the hundreds of millions of dollars worth of art housed in the museum, including Rembrandt’s only seascape painting, and a painting by the Dutch artist Vermeer, only one of about 36 in existence.

The job was pretty uneventful. Even boring.

But on St. Patrick’s Day weekend in 1990, Abath’s usual routine was dramatically shattered. Two men dressed as Boston Police officers rang the doorbell. Going against protocol, Abath let them into the museum. Within minutes he and his partner were subdued and the two thieves had free reign over the museum.




On this night, these two thieves would pull off the greatest art heist in history.

It is considered the biggest property theft ever. By the time the burglars left the museum, they had half a billion dollars worth of art in their possession.

More than two decades later, visitors to the museum can still lay their eyes on an actual crime scene. The empty frames of the stolen paintings hang on the walls, haunting reminders of a spectacular crime.

To this day, the artwork has never been found, the thieves never caught. And more puzzling, none of the 13 works of art have ever been sold as far as investigators can tell.



The Storm on the Sea of Galilee
by Rembrandt van Rijn

Stolen on March 18, 1990
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
Boston, Massachusetts, United States

The Storm on the Sea of Galilee is a painting of 1633 by the Dutch Golden Age painter Rembrandt van Rijn that was in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum of Boston, Massachusetts, United States, prior to being stolen on March 18, 1990.

The painting depicts the miracle of Jesus calming the waves on the Sea of Galilee, as depicted in the fourth chapter of the Gospel of Mark in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. It is Rembrandt's only seascape. 

It is widely believed, because of the fourteen people in the boat, that Rembrandt painted himself in the boat along with the twelve disciples and Jesus. The crew member looking out towards the viewer of the painting has been suggested as being a self-portrait of Rembrandt.


Why would these criminals steal valuable works of art if they weren’t going to make any money off of them? It is a mystery that is still unanswered.

And who were these thieves? Suspicion immediately fell on the guard who let them into the museum. For the first time on television, Rick Abath tells us his version of what happened the night those two men dressed as police officers rang the buzzer, and why he decided to let them inside.

It is a fascinating tale of intrigue and scandal. We’ll take you through the night of the crime, the suspects and theories that have been at the center of the investigation throughout the years - many names will be familiar to you.

Watch the Anderson Cooper Special Report at 10 p.m. tonight.

No comments:

Post a Comment

"Be as smart as you can, but remember that it is always better to be wise than to be smart."

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...