Product Description

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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10639 in Books
• Published on: 2009-03-01
• Released on: 2009-02-24
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 272 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780061451836
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Publishers Weekly
In the early morning hours of March 18, 1990, thieves posing as cops entered Bostons Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and left with a haul unrivaled in the art world, including three Rembrandts and a Vermeer, valued today at $600 million. Boser, a contributing editor at U.S. News and World Report, turned amateur sleuth after the death of a legendary independent fine arts claims adjuster, Harold Smith, who was haunted by the Gardner robbery. Boser carried on Smiths work, pursuing leads as varied as James Whitey Bulgers Boston mob and the IRA. Along the way, he visited felons—including the notorious art thief Myles Connor—and Bob Wittman, the FBIs only art theft undercover agent. Bosers rousing account of his years spent collecting clues large and small is entertaining enough to make readers almost forget that, after 18 years, the paintings have still not been found: the museum is offering a $5 million reward for information leading to their return. Photos. (Mar.)
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Review
This riveting, wonderfully vivid account takes you into the underworld of obsessed art detectives, con men, and thieves, tantalizing leads and dead ends. --Jonathan Harr, author of The Lost Painting

Review
A fascinating, well-researched investigation...[a] police-eye-view of an unsolved crime--the solution for which may be just around the corner. -- Noah Charney, director of the Association for Research into Crimes Against Art, and author of The Art Thief

Customer Reviews

Gripping
It's hard to put this book down. Through a bit of serendipity, Ulrich Boser inherited a famed art detective's files on the Gardner Heist. He plunged into this mysterious case, and brings us along for the ride as he explores not only what happened, but why the artwork meant so much to so many both before and after the heist. As the author treads ever closer to cracking the case, you remember that this isn't fiction and start to believe he might get the paintings back - but you also wonder if he might find trouble in this shady underworld. A fascinating read.

Where, oh, where are those masterpieces?
Ulrich Boser's The Gardner Heist: The True Story of the World's Largest Unsolved Art Theft combines several fascinating stories. It re-tells, virtually minute by minute, what is known of how this infamous 1990 art theft was staged. It relates a brief history of the museum's namesake, founder and benefactor, Isabella Gardner. It discusses the paintings that were ripped from the walls and their frames, including Vermeer's The Concert, Rembrandt's The Storm on the Sea of Galilee, and Manet's Chez Tortoni (the photo section provides pictures of them). It examines the security in the museum then and now. It introduces us, through interviews with Boser, to Harold Smith, the most successful art detective of his day. It kicks around the leads and theories that the FBI, police, and private investigators have followed up in the years since the heist. It looks into the lives of some of the men who've been suspected of and investigated for the actual robbery and others who might have the paintings now. The suspects include several vicious members of the underworld, one of whom is currently serving forty years in prison for an unrelated crime, and another who has blotted the FBI's Most Wanted list for years.

The author explains how, after Smith's death (due to illness, not foul play), he, Boser, got caught up in trying to solve the mystery of the paintings and how they might be recovered. Smith had been devoting huge amounts of time to the case; his was a mission bordering on obsession. And he wasn't alone in the hunt. A five million dollar reward lured some, but for others the love of art kept them searching. Boser also caught the Gardner fever, even traveling to another country to scan little seaside villages, hoping to catch sight of the mob boss who might be living there incognito -- perhaps even with the paintings in his home. Eventually Boser realized this quest could get him killed. But before he stopped hunting down every lead, he'd gathered enough evidence to convincingly identify the probable thieves, and he presents it all in The Gardner Heist with journalistic factualism married to an accessible, conversational style.

The story of these missing masterpieces, quite possibly moldering away and perhaps even abandoned somewhere, is sad. But even though Boser's book can't have a storybook, feel-good, ending, anyone interested in the world of art (and crime) shouldn't miss The Gardner Heist.

Riveting.
There are only a few books about true events which keep you on the edge of your seat. "All the President's Men" was one. This book is another. Beautifully written, excitingly paced, with a fascinating subject, this author has either narrowed the search for the thieves or done great investigative work that may lead to their identification and/or prosecution. The various characters' love for the artwork itself is a strong motivating force.