Thursday, Mar. 11, 2010

Boston's Gardner Museum, 1990

The moral of this story: Always ask to see a badge. During the waning (and presumably booze-soaked) hours of St. Patrick's Day 1990, two men dressed as police officers whisked away more than $300 million in fine art from Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum by duct-taping two feeble guards and crudely cutting the paintings from their frames. Rembrandt, Degas and Manet were among the artists whose work was stolen. Despite assigning 30 FBI agents to the case and offering a $5 million reward, the authorities never recovered the 13 pieces. Former rock 'n' roller Myles Connor tried to claim the reward in 1997. Authorities quickly discredited his tips, given Connor's digs — a federal prison where he was serving time for transporting two stolen paintings in 1975.