The Gardner heist : the true story of the world's largest unsolved art theft

**One museum, two thieves, and the Boston underworld — the story behind the lost Gardner masterpieces and the art detective who swore to get them back** Shortly after midnight on March 18, 1990, two men broke into the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston and committed the largest art heist in history. They stole a dozen masterpieces, including one Vermeer, three Rembrandts, and five Degas. But after thousands of leads, hundreds of interviews, and a $5-million reward, not a single painting has been recovered. Worth a total of $500 million, the missing masterpieces have become the Holy Grail of the art world and one of the nation's most extraordinary unsolved mysteries. Art detective Harold Smith worked on the theft for years, and after his death, reporter Ulrich Boser inherited his case files. Traveling deep into the art underworld, Boser explores Smith's unfinished leads and comes across a remarkable cast of characters, including the brilliant rock 'n' roll art thief; the golden-boy gangster who professes his innocence in rhyming verse; the deadly mobster James "Whitey" Bulger; and the Boston heiress Isabella Stewart Gardner, who stipulated in her will that nothing should ever be changed in her museum, a provision followed so closely that the empty frames of the stolen works still hang on the walls. Boser eventually cracks one of the biggest mysteries of the case and uncovers the identities of the men who robbed the museum nearly two decades ago. A tale of art and greed, of obsession and loss, *The Gardner Heist* is as compelling as the stolen masterpieces themselves. (Description from jacket flap) One Museum, Two Thieves, And The Boston Underworld--the Story Behind The Lost Gardner Masterpieces Worth $500 Million And The Art Detective Who Swore To Get Them Back. -- Cover. The Storm On The Sea Of Galilee : A Disturbance In The Courtyard -- Chez Tortoni : The Art Detective -- A Lady And Gentlemen In Black : It Was A Passion -- The Concert : The Picture Habit -- Cortege Aux Environs De Florence : The Art Of The Theft -- Landscape With An Obelisk : Something That Big -- Ku : Unfinished Business -- Three Mounted Jockeys : Infiltrate And Infatuate -- Self-portrait : I Was The One -- Program For An Artistic Soiree : Any News On Your Side -- Program For An Artistic Soiree Ii : Where's Whitey? -- La Sortie De Pesage : Put My Picture On The Cover -- Finial : Like A Spiderweb. Ulrich Boser. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [243]) And Index. Author's Note The Storm on the Sea of Galilee: A Disturbance in the Courtyard Chez Tortoni: The Art Detective A Lady and Gentlemen in Black: It Was a Passion The Concert: The Picture Habit Cortege aux Environs de Florence: The Art of the Theft Landscape with an Obelisk: Something That Big Ku: Unfinished Business Three Mounted Jockeys: Infiltrate and Infatuate Self-Portrait: I Was the One Program for an Artistic Soiree: Any News on Your Side Program for an Artistic Soiree II: Where's Whitey? La Sortie de Pesage: Put My Picture on the Cover Finial: Like a Spiderweb Sources Bibliography Photo Credits Acknowledgements Index The True Story of the Worlds Largest Unsolved Art Theft, The Gardner Heist by Ulrich Boser is a fascinating account of a brazen and amazing criminal acta book that could help police and investigators solve the mystery of the 1990 break-in and burglary at Bostons Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. A tantalizing whodunit ( Boston Globe ) and a riveting, wonderfully vivid account [that] takes you into the underworld of obsessed art detectives, con men, and thieves (Jonathan Harr, author of The Lost Painting ), The Gardner Heist is true crime history at its most spellbinding. Documents the unsolved theft of twelve masterpieces from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, tracing the research of the late art detective Harold Smith while recounting the author's own forays into the art underworld Title from PDF title page (viewed on Apr. 24, 2009).