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The Gardner Heist

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I've become intrigued by the story of the Gardner Heist.  I was recently listening to NPR where they were interviewing Ulrich Boser, who recently published an editorial in the Wall Street Journal. Boser was writing about the recent heist at the Musee d'Art Moderne in Paris.  Over $120 Million in artwork was stolen.  The pivot of his discussion was in regards to the notorious heist at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston.  The Boston robbery, after  20 years, remains unsolved--the thieves made off with paintings worth close to $500M! 

As if written in a mystery novel, "The frames hang empty today as an homage to the missing artworks and as a placeholder for their return. On this, the 20th year since the theft, the Gardner Museum, in cooperation with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the US Attorney’s Office, remains as committed as ever to the return of these stolen artworks – to the museum and to an awaiting public where they belong."

So, I thought we would take a peek at some of the artwork that is being kept to the consternation of the FBI and the art world.  The Vermeer below is the most valuable of the stolen pieces.  (Vermeer is one of my favorite painters!)  Watch the video above, the robbery included museum guards blindfolded and ducktaped--it sounds like a movie.  Sadly, it wasn't a movie, and the paintings are likely being held under-appreciated, veiled from the public's eye. 

Vermeer, The Concert, 1658–1660. Oil on canvas, 72.5 x 64.7 cm [Dutch Room - on a table by the window facing the doorway]

 Degas, Program for an artistic soiree, 1884. Charcoal on white paper, 24.1 x 30.9 cm

Manet, Chez Tortoni, 1878–1880 Oil on canvas, 26 x 34 cm [Blue Room – beneath the portrait of
Manet’s mother]

Rembrandt, Self-Portrait, ca. 1634 Etching, 1 3/4 x 2 in. (Bartsch 2, Rovinski 2, Hind 57) [Dutch Room - on the side of a cabinet beneath Rembrandt’s Self Portrait]

Degas, Three Mounted Jockeys, Black ink, white, flesh and rose washes, probably oil pigments, applied with a brush on medium brown paper, 30.5 x 24 cm [Short Gallery – on a cabinet]

I hope you have something refreshing planned for today...its Saturday!!