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19년째 오리무중인 500백만불에 달하는 가드너미술관 소장품 도난사건

Shelley Murphy | Boston

Gone, but not forgotten
Gardner Museum recalls art heist as 19th anniversary nears

Boston.com article page player in wide format.
By Shelley Murphy
Globe Staff / March 14, 2009



After two men dressed as Boston police officers conned their way into the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum after midnight on March 18, 1990, and stole artwork now valued at $500 million, South Boston crime boss James "Whitey" Bulger started pressuring people to find out who did it, according to a longtime associate of the gangster.


It was the largest art heist in world history, and Bulger was determined to find the thieves and confiscate the stolen masterpieces by Rembrandt, Vermeer, Degas, and Manet, said Patrick Nee, a former Bulger associate from South Boston.

"Whitey would have been looking to get his hands on the Gardner Museum paintings for a number of reasons," said Nee, adding that none were altruistic. "He would have done it for the reward, and he would use it as a bargaining chip down the road if he had the paintings."



Boston's underworld was buzzing with speculation about who carried out the caper, Nee said. But if it was done by local criminals, he said, they managed to keep it secret. Nee said he does not think Bulger, a fugitive since 1995, ever located the paintings.

As the 19th anniversary of the Gardner heist approaches, the FBI, the US attorney, and museum officials say they are still chasing down tips and leads but do not believe that Bulger, a longtime FBI informant who is charged with 19 murders and is one of the FBI's 10 Most Wanted, ever got his hands on the artwork.



"There is not one piece of credible evidence that links Whitey Bulger either to the original heist or to the possession, at any point in time, of the paintings," US Attorney Michael J. Sullivan said during a telephone interview yesterday.

"We're probably in the same position we were in 19 years ago," Sullivan said. "We don't know exactly where they are, and we have not been able to identify those people responsible since the theft."



The statute of limitations on prosecuting the thieves for the robbery has expired, but those who transport or hide the art could face charges. Sullivan said that his highest priority is recovering the artwork and that he would consider granting immunity from prosecution to anyone who comes forward to arrange its return.

The Gardner Museum is offering a $5 million reward for the artwork's safe return, but those who participated in the theft may not collect it.



The FBI and museum officials continue to receive tips every week that have led agents to Europe, Mexico, and throughout the United States in the past couple of years, law enforcement officials said.

A tip a couple of years ago that Rembrandt's "The Storm on the Sea of Galilee" was spotted at an antiques mall in Reno looked so promising that agents from Boston were dispatched to the desert city, only to discover a copy of the masterpiece, said FBI special agent Geoffrey J. Kelly.


"It was heartbreaking," said Kelly, who has been leading the FBI's investigation of the Gardner heist for eight years. "It gets a little deflating when you think this is it."



Last month, the FBI searched the attics, basements, and crawl spaces of houses in Maine and Dedham, after a prison inmate said that a long-deceased friend was involved in the heist and may have stashed the artwork at one of the residences. Again, they were dead ends.



Nobody has been more consumed with solving the heist than Anthony Amore, director of security at the Gardner Museum since 2005. He has amassed a database with more than 10,000 pieces of information, chronicling every tip, lead, and potential suspect.

Amore has scrutinized every movement of the thieves, who conned their way into the museum shortly before 1 a.m. on March 18, 1990, by posing as police officers, subdued the two guards, and cut the masterpieces from their frames.



They stole Rembrandt's "The Storm on the Sea of Galilee," "A Lady and Gentleman in Black," and a postage stamp-size self-portrait; Vermeer's "The Concert"; Flinck's "Landscape With an Obelisk," five sketches by Degas; and Manet's "Chez Tortoni." They also pocketed the gilded eagle finial from atop a Napoleonic flag and stole a bronze Chinese beaker.

Amore said he is baffled at why the thieves took some paintings, while ignoring other treasures. They bypassed more valuable works by Degas, then took several of the artist's sketches of jockeys sitting on horses.



The heist also indicates the thieves may have had inside information, said Amore, pointing out that the thieves were aware of a silent alarm behind the guard booth and knew the number of guards on duty.

The thieves also opened a secret door, located behind "The Storm on the Sea of Galilee," in the museum's Dutch Room on the second floor. The door is hidden by a panel and leads to a stairway.

While Amore has devoted endless hours to cracking the case, he said, "What's more important to me than discovering how it happened is getting the paintings back."



The recent publication of a book, "The Gardner Heist," by Ulrich Boser, has brought widespread publicity and triggered more tips.

The book focuses on a list of Boston organized crime figures who have been publicly identified as possible suspects.

Boser also recounts an Englishman's assertion that Bulger and Nee tried to sell the stolen Gardner artwork to his business partner at an antiques fair in Florida in the early 1990s for $10 million.



But Nee refuted the assertion, saying that he was in prison at that time after being convicted of an attempted armored car heist in 1991.

Nee, who lived in South Boston when the Gardner Museum was robbed, speculated that the stolen paintings may have passed through several hands and that "whoever hid them for the last time is dead and never told anyone where they've actually hidden the stuff."

It's a theory that Kelly has also considered.



"I'm comfortable they will surface, but it's possible it might be after somebody dies and they are clearing out a house or a basement," Kelly said. "It's not out of the realm of possibility that it will show up at a yard sale."
© Copyright 2009 Globe Newspaper Company.

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http://www.boston.com/news/specials/gardner_heist/stolen_art/


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