The Treasure of a Lifetime

This was the heist that rocked the Boston Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum back in March of 1990.

Two thieves disguised as police officers tricked the security guards at this museum as mentioned above into letting them into the museum late at night.

Once inside, the two thieves handcuffed the security guards and made off with thirteen famous paintings by artists like Rembrandt "Christ in the storm on the sea of Galilee" Vermeer "The Concert" and Flinck "Landscape with an Obelisk" for a total of around $500 million.

There has been a lot of crazy ideas about who masterminded this unsolved mystery from mobsters to a California screenwriter to the Irish Republican Army to South Boston gangster James "Whitey" Bulger. But so far, there've been no promising leads.

The museum hasn't given up hope of finding the lost art. They even extended indefinitely their $10 million reward for anyone who helps recover the missing masterpieces. Until just recently.

I had moved to Boston to work at the Boston Globe as a columnist, it was a dream job for me, and it was a change from the city I came from In Alberta.

While moving into my new apartment I came across a floorboard in my room that was sticking up a bit more than the rest, and of course, I thought that if I stepped down hard onto it that it might lodge back into place. It did not work, and no matter how much force I put onto this board it just wouldn't slip back into place. The only thing I could do was to get on my hands and knees and try to slide it in that way, then I figured that maybe there was a nail underneath that was caught and held that floorboard from moving. So, I checked underneath and couldn't see anything then I decided to slip my hand underneath it slowly, and feel around if there was something holding it back. I slipped my hand underneath and felt around when I felt something strange in that space.

I wasn't sure what it was by feeling it, it was covered with greyish-colored dust and spiderwebs. I was in a way kind of creeped out when I pulled this object from the floor in my new bedroom. I swiped off the debris from this package, and unwrapped it, when I realized it was some kind of black book, like a journal of some sort. I wasn't sure if I should read it or find its owner. But to do that, I had to open the book and look through it to see if it mentions who it belongs to.

I cleaned it off a bit more and washed up before getting comfortable on the couch in the living room, under my fancy, branched-out light. It was a brass color and looked antiqueish. I bought it at an auction for real cheap, and I had to have it. I loved that rustic, old look in furniture. It gives any room character and that warm, welcoming feeling like your childhood home or even grandma's house. It was my style and it went well with everything. So, while getting ready to examine this mystery my mind was working overtime. I had so many questions and curiosities that it was like a young child getting ready to go to Disney Land. It was exciting and a little bit scary all in one.

I examined the front cover, looking for anything like an etching from a pen or any kind of indent made. There was nothing on the front. I examined the back cover, no indents there either. Thinking that it's a worn-out leather material it would have given some kind of clues. Leather seems to capture everything like a canvas almost. If someone would have written on the inside, wrote something, anything, it would be left behind. Not a thing was found. I really wasn't sure if I should read the little black book or just put it away. It was not my business as to what was written inside. It made me a bit uneasy, almost a guilty feeling, as if I was doing something wrong, I was about to invade someone's privacy and my gut was saying "Don't do it, Paige it's not your business." I ignored that little voice and went on to the first page of the black book.

With a little bit of reading that I did, it only took me that first page, and I knew that this black book was going to tell me a lot of priceless information. The information could be worth a lot of money to someone if they were to get their hands on this little gem. I couldn't believe my eyes as to what I was reading, the dates, the descriptions, and best of all, the secrets to an unsolved mystery and I found it. I'm the type that once there is a lead like I had found and read, it was my duty as my curious self to get the full story and not just parts of it, but the real truth as well, everyone that is involved could benefit from it. Especially when these little gems were worth $500 million.

I was holding the secrets of a lifetime and without this black book being given to the right people, the information in this book can reveal the truth, and the people behind this huge secret that disrupted the resting place of these famous masterpieces and left the place they were resting empty and cold. Just the blank nothingness is all that remained when they were taken over thirty years.

I was holding the full written journal of one of the art thieves who was involved in the heist of thirteen famous paintings from the Boston Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. I was so intrigued by this that I was not telling a single soul of what I had found in the floorboards of my bedroom something that can bring closure and peace of mind as well as having just the frame left behind felt as if being violated by strangers. But holding this book with what it has written inside it, could be very dangerous as well. It could bring the wrong types of people knocking or kicking in my apartment door, just for the black book. I was not really sure if that would happen, but it could make problems that I wouldn't be able to fix, also if it backfired in my face and the Boston Police Services might even think that I was part of this heist. Wouldn't that be terrible?

The black book has had the real story inside it this whole time, and nobody thought of ever handing it in. I'm not the only one that has come across it, it wouldn't be tucked under the floorboards in my bedroom like it was. Someone had put it there to be found, and maybe it wasn't supposed to be me who finds it, but I did. I can't change things now and just put it back. I was holding the most important and priceless piece of the past that uncovers the mystery of who, where, why, and when, all wrapped up in this black book. It was going to be part of history and the future. Nothing has ever been so important like this ever in the world. The black book tells all, and I am going to share the secrets here, with all of you, right now.

The museum guards on duty that night were Dale Hart, age 23, and Larry Henst, age 25; Hart was a regular night watchman and it was Henst's first time on the nightshift. The security policy maintained that one guard patrolled the galleries with a flashlight and walkie-talkie, while the other sat at the security desk. Hart went on patrol first. During his patrol, fire alarms sounded off in different rooms in the museum, but he could not locate any fire or smoke. Hart returned to the security room where the fire alarm control panel indicated smoke in multiple rooms. He assumed some type of malfunction and shut down the panel. He went back on patrol and before he completed his rounds, made a quick stop at the side entrance of the museum, briefly opening the side door and shutting it again. He did not tell Henst he was doing this or why. Hart completed his tour and returned to the security desk around 1: a.m, at which point Henst began his rounds.

At 1:20 a.m the thieves drove up to the side entrance, parked, and walked up to the side door. They rang the buzzer, which connected them to Hart through an intercom. They explained to Hart that they were police investigating a disturbance and needed to be buzzed in. Hart could see them on the closed-circuit television wearing what appeared to be real police uniforms. He was not aware of any disturbance but theorized that it was St. Patrick's Day, perhaps a reveler had climbed over the fence and someone had seen and reported it. Hart let the men in at 1:24 a.m.

The thieves were let into a locked foyer that separated the side door from the museum. They approached Hart at the desk and asked if anyone else was in the museum and to bring them down; Hart radioed Henst to return to the security desk. Hart noticed around this time that the mustache on the taller man appeared fake. The shorter man told Hart that he looked familiar, that they may have a warrant for his arrest, and to come out from behind the desk and provide identification. Hart complied, stepping away from the desk where the only panic button to alert police was.

The shorter manforced Hart against the wall, spread his legs, and handcuffed him. Hart noticed that he was not frisked. Henst walked into the room around this time, and the taller thief turned him around and handcuffed him. Once both guards were handcuffed, the thieves revealed their true intentions to rob the museum and asked the guards to not give them any problems.

They led the guards into the basement where were handcuffed to a steam pipe and workbench. The thieves examined the wallets of the guards and explained that they know where they live and to not tell authorities anything and they will get a reward in about a year. It took the thieves 11 minutes to subdue the guards, it was now about 1:35 a.m.

This little black book had recorded everything and planes how to get around, and when they had to do it. Everything was timed. As I kept reading on, the details of how long it took, which items had to be taken, and best of all, there were names. That's the one thing the police and the FBI didn't have, but I did, written in this little black book. It had it all. And I was the one person that knew this besides the thieves themselves.

They knew that museum like they knew the back of their hands. Which rooms had which painting, how to remove the paintings, and the best way to remove the pianting without damaging it all. I was so intrigued by this, it was exciting to be the person reading this. It felt like I was in their shoes at the very moment they were doing it. I had front row seats, even better; I was looking through the thieves eyes.

The thieves movements through the museum were recorded on infrared motion detectors. Steps in the first room they entered, the Dutch Room on the second floor, were not recorded until 1:48 a.m. This was 13 minutes after they finished subduing the guards, perhaps waiting to make sure no poilce were alerted.

As the thieves approached the paintings in the Dutch Room, a device began beeping that would normally trip when a patron was too close to a painting. The thieves smashed it. They took " Storm on the sea of Galilee" and " A Lady and Gentleman in Black " and threw them on the marble floor which shattered their glass frames. Using a blade, they cut the canvases out of their stretchers. They also removed a large Rembrandt self-portrait oil painting from the wall but left it leaning against a cabinet. The investigators believe they may have considered it, but it was too large to transport, potentially becasue it was n wood, not more durable canvas like the others. Instead, the thieves took a small postage stamp-sized self-portrait etching by Rembrandt on display beneath the larger portrait.

On the right side of the room, they removed "Landscape with Obelisk" and also " The Concert" from their frames. The final piece taken from the room was an ancient Chinese gu.

At 1:51 a.m the thieves entered another room and attempted to take the Napoleonic flag, but they didn't all the way through unscrewing all the bolts and left it. They did take the exposed eagle finial atop the flagpole. They also took five " Degas" sketches from the room. The last work stolen was " Chez Tortoni" from the Blue Room on the first floor. The museum's motion dectors did not detect any motion within the Blue Room during the thieves' time in the building. The only footsteps detected in the room that night were Hart's during the two times he passed through the gallery on his patrol earlier.

As the thieves prepared to leave, the thieves checked on the guards one last time and asked if they comfortable. They then moved to the security director's office where they took the video cassettes that recorded their entrance on the closed-circuit cameras, and the data print-outs from the motion detecting equipment. The frame for "Chez Tortoni" was left at the security director's desk. The thieves then moved to take the artwork out of the museum; the side entrance doors were opened once at 2:40 a.m and again for the last time at 2:45 a.m. The robbery lasted 81 minutes.

The next shift of guards arrived later in the morning and realized something was amiss when they could not establish contact with anyone inside to be let in. They called in a security director who, upon entering the building with his keys, fouund nobody at the watch desk and called police. The police searched the building until they found the guards still tied in the basement.

The list of paintings is as follows:

1. The Concert- Vermeer

2. The storm on the sea of Galilee- Rembrandt

3. A Lady and Gentleman in Black- Rembrandt

4. Landscape with Obelisk- Flinck

5. Chez Tortoni- Manet

6. Self Portrait- Rembrandt

7. La Sortie de Pesage- Degas

8. Cortege aux Environs de Florence- Degas

9. Program for an Artistic Soir`ee 1- Degas

10. Program for an Artistic Soir`ee 2- Degas

11. Three Mounted Jockeys- Degas

12. An Ancient Chinese gu.

13. A French Imperial Eagle finial

Thirteen works were stolen. In 1990, the FBI estimated the value of the haul at $200 million, and raised this estimate to $500 million by 2000. In the late 2000s, some art dealers suggested the haul could be worth $600 million. It was considered the largest museum heist in terms of value until it was surpassed by the Dresden Green Vault burlary in 2019.

The most valuable painting was the "The Concert" by Vermeer. It's value is half of the haul's value, estimated at $250 million in 2015. Experts believe it may be the most valuable stolen object in the world.

Experts confused as to why the thieves overlooked other valuable paintings worth more money by Raphael, Botticelli, and Michelangelo and left them undistrurbed, opting to take realtively valueless items like the gu and finial. The thieves never entered the third floor where Titan's "The Rape of Europa" hung, one of the most valuable paintings in the city. The selection of works and the brutish ways the theives handled the artwork has led investigators to believe the thieves were not experts commissioned to steal particular works.

Federal have stated that anyone who willingly returns the items will not be prosecuted. The statue of limitations expired in 1995 as well, so the thieves and anyone who participated in the theft cannot be prosecuted.

There was a letter written and sent to the museum in asking for immunity and all others involved , and $2.6 million for the return of the artwork, which would be sent to an offshore bank account at the same time the art was handed over. If the museum was interested in negotiating, they should print a coded message in "The Boston Globe." To establish credence, the writer conveyed information only known by the museum and the FBI at the time.

The writer of that letter sent to the museum director Anne Hawley also mentioned that they were a third party negotiator and did not know the identity of the thieves. They explained that the artwork was stolen to reduce a prison sentence, but as the opportunity had passed, there was no longer a motive to keep the artwork and they wanted to negotiate a return.

People of interest at the time were:

1.The security guard- Dale Hart

2. The museum's deputy security chief: Hart's boss- John Clemmens

3. Powerful Crime Boss in Boston- Whitey Bulger

4. The Irish Republican Army.

5. The Ulster Volunteer Force.

6. Conman from Boston- Brian McDevitt- attempted to rob the Hyde Collection in Glens Falls, New York in 1981. Died in 2004.

7. The Merlino gang- Robert Guarente and Manchester, Connecticut, ganster Robert Gentile, David Turner, George Reissfelder- died 1991

8. A gang from Dorchester

9. Boston Mafia Boss- Frank Salemme

10. Louis Royce- In prison at the time of the Boston's museums robbery.

11. Stephen Rossetti- Asscociate to Royce

12. Bobby Donati- murdered in 1991 by the Patriarca crime family

13. Art thief- Myles J. Connor Jr.- in jail at the time of the heist.

14. Known criminal- David Houghton

15. Criminal and Antiques dealer- William P. Youngworth

FBI agent Thomas McShane investigated Bulger for his involvement. He determined that Bulger's strong ties with the Boston Police could explain how the thieves acquired legitimate police uniforms, or perhaps that real police were arranged to do the heist.

It all seems so confusing right? Well, let's take a look at the names closer in the black book. The black book reveals this information as follows.

Bobby Donati and David Houghton were the masterminds in this heist, along with Stephen Rossetti . They all organized this to get Connor out of jail. But also Ferrara was in jail and Donati was going to get him out as well.

The thieves who robbed the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum are David Turner and his friend George Reissfelder, but he died in 1991.

The paintings were passed around to most of the above mentioned people and gang members. Once Donati was murdered in jail, they all had no use for these artworks any longer and didn't want to get caught with them. They were then handed down to Youngworth the antiques dealer. From there the black book mentions that Danati had buried the artwork and would use that in negotiations.

Guarnete was close friends to Donati and they each had paintings, also the black book mentions a meeting at the club in Revere between Donati and Guarente. They also were seen with a bag of police uniforms.

When I checked further into all this information, It all came back as to be true. The police involved, the security guards working that night, the girlfriends to these criminals; all true about what they saw, they mentioned that they saw the paintings in their homes, but the paintings were removed, and the girlfriends say that they have no idea as to where.

Well, the story goes on, the artworks have been found just not returned. What Youngworth will do next is a mystery. Donati is gone, Guarnete and Connor had paintings and the mafia boss didn't have them. The Irish didn't have them either. The deputy of security of the Boston's Isabella Museum was involved and gave the two thieves important information that they needed to get a clean and clear getta way.

The mystery still isn't solved and this black book has the answers. I don't know if it's worth $10 million, but I am sure in the right hands this book would solve so many unanswered questions. I couldn't believe I had this and had a opportunity to read its contents. I gave it to the museum director and now it's in safe hands at least.

My job working with the Boston Herald is a great pleasure and all the stories I have contributed is all researched and hoping to be solved. I hope to make a difference in the world with the work I do and the people I meet in my journeys.

Most names in this story have been changed and the ending is not the real outcome. This heist is still unsolved and ongoing. Nobody really knows the truth or who has any of the works. Sorry, if it was misleading. Its fictional.