BOSTON, March 18 (Reuters) – The FBI on Monday plans to
reveal new information about one of Boston’s longest-running
crime mysteries: Who was behind the 1990 theft of 13 paintings
from the Isabella Stuart Gardner Museum in the costliest art
theft in U.S. history.
Officials declined to release details ahead of a 2 p.m. ET
(1800 GMT) press conference, where they plan to reveal
“investigative developments” as well as a publicity campaign
related to the theft.
The 13 paintings, including Rembrandt’s “Storm on the Sea of
Galilee” and Edouard Manet’s “Chez Tortoni,” were stolen on the
night of March 18, 1990, when two men dressed as police officers
arrived at the private museum’s front door and a security guard
let them in.
The thieves allegedly overpowered both guards, who were
found duct-taped to chairs in the museum’s basement the next
morning.
The FBI solved Boston’s other long-running crime mystery in
June 2011, when it found accused mobster James “Whitey” Bulger
hiding in a seaside California community. Bulger was arrested on
a tip that came in after the FBI launched a publicity campaign
aimed at tracking him down; he had been on the run since 1994.
The Gardner Museum was founded by Isabella Stuart Gardner, an
art collector who died in 1924. Her will contained very
particular conditions on the running of the museum, including
the arrangement of her collection and free admission to anyone
named Isabella, a practice it continues today.
(Reporting by Scott Malone; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)
