Tuesday, 18 March marks the 35th anniversary of the day thieves entered the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and seized 13 works of art. The robbery is believed to be not only the world’s largest art heist, but also the largest single instance of property theft by value.
In the early hours of 18 March 1990, two men disguised as police officers entered the museum, handcuffed the two security guards on duty and took off more than an hour later with 13 works. The crime took place the morning after St Patrick’s Day in Boston, the US city with the highest rate of residents with Irish ancestry, and partygoers passing by shortly before the robbery saw the suspects but noticed nothing out of place. In the 35 years since, none of the pieces have been recovered and no arrests have been made, though theories abound as to who was behind the heist and where the objects may be (theories include Philadelphia, Ireland and Corsica).
Another unclear aspect of the case is the value of the works that were taken. We will never know the true market value, even if all 13 objects were to be found and returned. Gardner, the eccentric heiress who built the collection and established the museum, stipulated in her will that no works can be deaccessioned. The will also states the collection will remain displayed how Gardner wished before her death in 1924—to comply with the will, the museum hangs the stolen painting’s frames that were left behind in hope the artwork will be returned.
The Dutch Room as it looked in 1926 Courtesy the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
The Dutch Room in 2023, missing The Storm on the Sea of Galilee Courtesy the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
Gardner built a world-class collection, and was one of the first American collectors to aggressively acquire works by European masters. Objects that were stolen most notably include one of only 37 known paintings by Johannes Vermeer, The Concert (1662-64), as well as Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee (1633), Rembrandt van Rijn’s only seascape. Shortly after the robbery, the museum’s curator Karen Haas told The New York Times the 13 works were worth in excess of $200m. Bizarrely, the painting largely believed at the time to be the museum’s most valuable was left behind: Titian’s Rape of Europa (1560–62), which Gardner purchased in 1896. It was the first authentic painting by the artist to ever enter an American collection. Gardner spent $100,000 on it, the equivalent to $2.5m in 2017, according to the museum.
However, art valuation is not an exact science. The boom in art prices over the past few decades and inflation complicate calculations, as does the rarity of the works taken. Gardner acquired most of her collection at the turn of the century from Europe, much of it through the art historian Bernard Berenson. Similar works rarely, if ever, come up for auction for comparison.
Rembrandt van Rijn’s Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee (1633) Courtesy the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
A more recent—and the most often-repeated—valuation for the stolen Gardner Museum works is $500m. That figure appears to have originated in 2000 from FBI agent Thomas Cassano, according to Ulrich Boser’s book The Gardner Heist: The True Story of the World’s Largest Unsolved Art Theft (2009). Boser describes how during a talk on the Gardner heist at the International Foundation for Art Research in New York City, Cassano estimated all the works had a current market value of around $500m; in response, the audience of art scholars reportedly chanted back, “More! More!” The FBI declined to comment on the valuation, and a representative for the Gardner Museum told The Art Newspaper the $500m figure was not its own calculation.
The museum’s security director, Anthony Amore, said in 2023 on an FBI podcast that the $500m figure is likely an undervaluation, citing the passage of time and inflation. In 2019, the longtime Old Masters dealer and former Sotheby’s senior vice president Otto Naumann said the stolen horde would be worth at least $1bn, with Vermeer’s The Concert worth nearly $500m alone.
Johannes Vermeer’s The Concert (1663-66) Courtesy the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
Former FBI special agent Robert Wittman, who specialised in recovering looted art and antiques, worked on the case and told The Art Newspaper higher valuations are “not that outrageous”, pointing to the $450.3m (with fees) fetched by the Salvator Mundi attributed to Leonardo at Christie’s New York in 2017.
Another issue: if the works were to be returned, what kind of condition would they be in? Five paintings, including Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee and The Concert, were roughly cut out of their frames with blades during the heist. Investigators believed the paintings may have been rolled up to transport them, likely damaging the centuries-old canvases.
“I had cases where pieces were stolen and cut from their frame, then found 30 years later in pretty bad shape,” Wittman says, adding he is more hopeful about the works taken that night that were not slashed. Wittman detailed his investigations into the whereabouts of Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee and The Concert in his 2010 memoir Priceless: How I Went Undercover to Rescue the Works Stolen Treasures.
Rembrandt’s A Lady and Gentleman in Black (1633) Courtesy the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
For the museum itself, “the value of these paintings to our institution, and to the public is inestimable”, Nathaniel Silver, the Gardner Museum’s associate director and chief curator told The Art Newspaper in a statement.
To mark the 35th anniversary of the theft, the museum has unveiled a sound installation in the Dutch Room, from which six of the 13 stolen works were taken. Sound artist Skooby Laposky has sonically recreated Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee, and visitors observing the frame will hear waves and the sounds of birds native to the Sea of Galilee. As they move around the frame, the sound will shift to thunder and winds of a violent storm, according to the museum. The sound installation will run until 19 March (the Gardner Museum is closed on the actual anniversary of the heist, as it is every Tuesday).
The museum is still offering a $10m reward for information that leads directly to the return of the stolen artwork.
“We appeal to the public to share any information leading to their recovery,” Silver adds. “Isabella Stewart Gardner left her museum for the ‘education and enjoyment of the public forever’ and we hope to see them returned for the benefit of all.”
