150 000+ readers. Learn art the fun way.
This is a preview. Paid subscribers get the full story.
You’ll also get:
10 new stories every month
The full archive (130+ Art stories)
Your personal art guide. Comment, ask questions, DM me anytime
iPhone user? Subscribe at coolstoriesabout.art, not via the app. Apple adds 30% to the price.
For those who haven’t read it yet, here is part 1 of this story.
Keep learning art the fun way
1990, Boston: The Heist of the Century
During the night of 17th to 18th March 1990, in Boston, two men disguised as police officers burst into the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. It was 1.24 a.m. Two night guards were on duty. The fake policemen claimed to be responding to a disturbance call.
The young guard let them in. The intruders declared he was under arrest. Stunned, he complied. His colleague suffered the same fate. Both guards were taken to the basement, bound and gagged. The fake police officers reassured them: “Don’t worry, we’ll be back soon.”
The thieves now had free rein. For 81 minutes, they pillaged the museum. They made their way to the Dutch gallery. They targeted the most famous canvases. They cut Rembrandt’s large work The Storm on the Sea of Galilee from its frame with a box cutter, the only seascape painted by Rembrandt.
They also ripped out his Portrait of a Couple. The empty frames were left hanging. They remain there today.
They then removed The Concert by Johannes Vermeer, one of the most precious paintings in the world. The Gardner Museum had owned this Vermeer from 1664 since 1892.
It was the only Vermeer in New England. They also took a landscape by Govaert Flinck, a Chinese bronze vase from the Shang dynasty, and a tiny engraved self-portrait by Rembrandt.
They proceeded to another room. They took five charcoal sketches by Degas, depicting equestrian scenes. They also seized a small gilt bronze eagle that once crowned a Napoleonic standard. Finally, they stole a painting by Manet, Chez Tortoni.