Everything the Thieves Took
After gaining entry into the museum, the two thieves subdued the security guards and first targeted the second-floor Dutch Room, where six of the 13 pieces were stolen, including Rembrandt’s only seascape, Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee.
They slashed Rembrandt's Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee and A Lady and Gentleman in Black from their frames instead of removing them. They also lifted Johannes Vermeer’s The Concert—one of approximately 35 paintings he ever created—from its frame and next attempted to take a large self-portrait by Rembrandt, but left it, perhaps because of its size.
They continued their way around the Dutch Room grabbing another Rembrandt, a tiny self-portrait etching, as well Goevart Flinck’s Landscape with an Obelisk and an ancient Chinese bronze beaker.
In the process, the thieves tripped the museum’s motion detectors, intended to warn security if a visitor got too close to the art. The sensors recorded the thieves’ every move as they roamed around freely through different galleries, providing investigators an exact timeline and map to retrace their steps.
From the Dutch Room, the thieves headed to the Short Gallery where they took five rare sketches by Edward Degas and a gilded bronze eagle finial that was atop a flag of Napoleon’s Imperial Guard.
Finally, they headed back to the first floor’s Blue Room, where they removed Édouard Manet’s Chez Tortoni from its frame that was hanging below Madame Auguste Manet, the portrait the artist painted of his mother around 1866. It was being cleaned at the time of the robbery.
In less than 90 minutes, at 2:45 a.m., the thieves and the artwork vanished.
Chasing Leads Around the World
In the three decades since the heist, investigators have chased leads all the way to Japan. They’ve continually updated the public in hopes someone would come forward with information.
In his book, Master Thieves, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Stephen Kurkjian wrote that the leading theory for years was that Boston mobster James “Whitey” Bulger was behind it. He wasn’t.
Other Boston mobsters–now all dead–were considered suspects, including drug trafficker Carmello Merlino, crime boss Frank “Cadillac Frank” Salemme, Stephen Rossetti and Robert Donati.
Then in 2013, the FBI announced it knew who stole the art, but didn’t give names. It said some of art was likely moved to Connecticut and Philadelphia before it ended up with another man linked to the mob, Robert Guarente. The FBI believed Guarente then gave at least some of the art to Connecticut mobster Robert “The Cook” Gentile, thanks to intel from Guarente’s wife, Elaene.
But a search of Gentile’s Connecticut home in 2013 turned up none of the art, though a list of the stolen Gardner paintings and their estimated worth was discovered. Gentile, who was considered the last surviving suspect in the heist, died in 2021 and always denied ever having even seen the paintings.
Legendary art thief Myles Connor had already stolen a Rembrandt in the ‘70s from the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Connor helped arrange the piece’s return to the museum to avoid prison time for another art crime. His actions may have prompted Boston mobsters to do the same thing: steal masterpieces and use them to negotiate with law enforcement on other crimes.
Were the Rembrandts Targets?
In 2015, the FBI finally publicly named George Reissfelder and Lenny DiMuzio as the primary suspects, though it never said why. Both died within a year of the robbery. DiMuzio’s body was found in the trunk of a car in East Boston just months after Reissfelder died of an overdose.
Retired FBI agent Geoffrey Kelly told The Boston Globe the suspects were hired by crime boss Carmello Merlino, who died in prison in 2005, to make fast money stealing the Rembrandts. Amore believes the Rembrandts were the target since they were all taken down by the thieves with intent to be stolen.
Also in 2015, the FBI released new video from the museum’s security cameras that shows a man pull up in a car and park outside the museum at 12:49 a.m. the night before the theft. A security guard then allows him inside the same door the thieves entered the next evening.
Vincent Lisi, special agent in charge of the FBI in Boston in 2015, said they released the video in hopes it would generate leads from the public, but the case is still as cold as ever.
The Latest on the Investigation
The FBI and the Gardner Museum have spent millions trying to find the missing art. Amore says the museum still receives an endless flow of tips and theories about where the art could be.
“It’s impossible to say whether the pieces are still together or separated,” he says.
Amore holds out hope the public might have information but remains realistic. “Art theft investigations are complicated because they aren't solved by reading the internet,” he says. “They’re solved via old-fashioned investigative work.”
Five empty frames still hang in the museum as constant reminders of the theft, many in its famed Dutch Room, which once held more than half of the stolen artwork. Isabella Stewart Gardner established the museum in 1903 “for the education and enrichment of the public forever.” She started the public museum in large part because of Rembrandt’s Self-Portrait, Age 23—the Rembrandt the thieves left behind—which Gardner purchased in 1896. When she died in 1924, her will very specifically stated that the collection should never be changed or moved.
The decision to rehang the empty frames in 1994 was meant more as a statement than following Gardner’s mandate. “We wanted to let everyone know we are waiting for return of these paintings,” Holly Salmon, director of conservation at Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, tells A&E Crime + Investigation. “Our team will be prepared for [the other paintings’] return when that happens.”
This year, Salmon is leading the Dutch Room’s “floor-to-ceiling” restoration that includes restoring the Rembrandt frames and refurbishing the room’s furniture, 16th-century Italian painted ceiling and wall textiles to Gardner’s original vision. The room will reopen in 2027.
The museum continues to offer a $10 million reward for information that could lead to the art’s return.
