Gardner Museum Heist Investigation

New England's Unsolved: The Gardner heist 30 years later

Boston 25 News March 20, 2020

Narrator: The boldest art heist ever.

Brian Kelly: Handcuffing the guards and then taking their own sweet time throughout the museum.

Narrator: Precious works worth hundreds of millions gone.

Anthony Amore: The most valuable thing ever stolen in the history of the world is the Vermeer.

Narrator: Three decades later, empty frames still hanging in Boston.

Amore: A mystery that has so many mysteries within it.

Narrator: The questions unanswered. Was it an inside job? Who has the art now?

Bob Ward: Do you have any idea where those paintings are?

Narrator: "The Gardner Heist 30 Years Later, "A New England's Unsolved Special." Here now, Boston 25 News reporter Bob Ward.

Ward: Good evening. The Isabella Stewart Gardner museum heist is widely considered the biggest art theft in history. The FBI values the stolen artwork today at $500 million, all of it taken, and 30 years later, still no sign of it. Recently, "New England's Unsolved" was granted rare and extensive access to the museum to tell the story of this enduring mystery. We're talking with the people closest to this case for insight on what happened, who stole the art, and where it might be right now.

Let's begin with the crime itself.

Anthony Amore: We lost six pieces from this room, including the famous Rembrandts and the Vermeer.

Ward: Anthony Amore is the director of security and chief investigating officer for the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, home to one of the most significant private art collections in the world, but it is what happened here 30 years ago that brings me together with Amore in the Dutch Room, shadowed by the huge empty frames that once held masterpieces.

Amore: It's an incredibly beautiful room as you can see, and sadly, it's also perhaps the biggest crime scene in the world.

Ward: This case begins on March 18th, 1990. Only two overnight guards were on duty at the museum. At 1:25 a.m., two thieves disguised as Boston Police Officers talked their way into the Gardner, telling a guard at the security desk there was a disturbance in the courtyard.

Amore: Thieves came in and they spoke to the guard briefly. They got got him to get his partner downstairs, and once the two guards were together at the watch desk area, the police officer basically told them that they were under arrest and to assume the position. They handcuffed them and they wrapped duct tape around their eyes and they locked them up in the basement.

Ward: Once the security guards were secured, the thieves had the run of the museum, and thanks to motion detectors that recorded the footsteps of the thieves, Amore knows they quickly got to work. First, to the Dutch Room on the second floor where two Rembrandts, "Christ in the Storm "on the Sea of Galilee," and "Lady and Gentleman in Black" were cut from their frames.

Amore: And the frame was taken down and put on the floor basically in front of where it hung, and one of the thieves went to work cutting it out with what I think was probably like a box cutter, razor knife.

Ward: Nearby, a Vermeer, "The Concert," was removed but not cut from its frame.

Amore: The most valuable thing ever stolen in the history of the world is the Vermeer, "The Concert." The second-most is "The Storm in the Sea of Galilee." At one point, while one thief gathered art in the Dutch Room, the second thief made five trips to the Short Gallery where five framed artworks by Degas were taken right off a cabinet. Some of the hooks where the artwork was displayed are still visible. Five times, that thief walked right through the Rafael Room where priceless work was left untouched. And on the first floor in the Blue Room, this Manet, "Chez Tortoni," was grabbed. The two thieves were inside the Gardner Museum for 81 minutes, and on the way out, they had one final task. Those thieves were careful to cover their tracks.

Amore: They went back to the security area and made sure they grabbed the video surveillance tape. Before they left, they took the old VHS tape out of the, you know, this is 1990, out of the recording system, and there was no cloud back then,

Ward: Those are the facts of the case, but the mystery behind those empty frames goes much deeper. Investigators immediately began peeling back the layers and they shared with us mystifying clues hidden in the way this heist played out, clues that launched this investigation.

Brian Kelly: It was a pretty bold crime in and of itself, dressing up like police officers, handcuffing the guards, and then taking their own sweet time throughout the museum, taking the items they wanted.

Ward: Former federal prosecutor Brian Kelly headed up the Gardner Museum investigation, and he is not alone thinking about the 81 minutes the Gardner thieves had to pull off the world's greatest art heist. What do you make out of that that they had that kind of time to do what they were going to do?

Amore: There's a lot to be made of that. First of all, I've looked at well over 13, 1,400 art heists, and you never see them go past, say, 10 minutes. It just tells you that there was something about security here that they must have known to be that assured that they were safe and weren't going to be caught. A relaxed attitude from the very start.

Ward: 20 minutes before the heist began, the fake cops were seen on Palace Road, just outside the museum's door that leads to the security desk. The actual door the thieves used no longer exists, but it was located close to this one. A witness told investigators they saw two Boston Police Officers sitting in a parked car, and that one of those officers looked the witness right in the eye.

Could the Gardner heist have been an inside job? The museum won't say, but there is troubling evidence of that possibility on the museum's first floor. In the Blue Room, where Manet's "Chez Tortoni" was swiped, the museum's own security system, which tracked the movements of the thieves inside the museum, revealed they stayed on the second floor. That's where interior alarms sounded hundreds of times.

Amore: At no time between the entry and exit of the thieves did alarms on the first floor go off.

Ward: But the only people in the museum were the two guards before the two thieves got here.

Amore: Right.

Ward: So, if the two thieves didn't go into that room, one of the guards must have gone in there.

Amore: Well, you know, you hate to point fingers at anybody. I mean, we don't know. It's just a really difficult thing to explain, and we can't explain it away.

Ward: There is another intriguing clue about the thieves, and it has to do with the five stolen Degas pieces. Why did those attract attention, but nearby priceless artwork did not?

Amore: Perhaps because each of the frames included images of horses. In fact, the top two frames had jockeys on horses, and it could be, and this is speculation, but it could be something as simple as the thief was interested in horse racing. You know, Suffolk Downs isn't far from here, and it's entirely plausible that they just appealed to the thief.

Ward: At 2:45 a.m., it was all over. The thieves emerged from the museum, one after the other, carrying the stolen artwork into a hatchback parked on Palace Road. Throughout the heist, they carried scanners or walkie-talkies, so it is possible a lookout could have told them the coast was clear.

These sketches drawn from descriptions provided by the guards, the only personal evidence the thieves left behind, but those vague descriptions have done very little to break this case.

Amore: White guys in Boston, no distinguishing characteristics. Go find them.

Ward: Wow.

Amore: How do you do that? It's just a mystery that has so many mysteries within it. It makes it very tough to investigate.

Ward: There is a 10 million dollar reward offered for information leading to the art's recovery. Tips can go to the museum, the FBI, or a third party. Now, the FBI Boston office issued this statement that reads in part:

"Despite the passage of time, our commitment to recovering these stolen masterpieces has not waned. We are constantly reexamining the evidence and coming up with new strategies to facilitate a break in the case. Rest assured, we've been relentless in our pursuit of tangible evidence as to where the artwork currently is."

Narrator: Hot on the trail of the stolen artwork...

FBI Gardner Heist lead investigator Geoff Kelly: Certainly, there's been some theories.

Narrator: Mobsters, informants, who took the paintings? And where have they been hiding for decades?

Brian Kelly: They found a secret compartment beneath a shed that he had in the back yard.

Narrator: Investigators share with us the moment they opened that secret compartment, when "The Gardner Heist 30 Years Later, "A New England's Unsolved Special" returns.

Ward: When the Gardner thieves escaped the museum that night, they left behind a mountain of evidence, and some of that evidence directs investigators to what they believe happened next to the artwork and who was involved.

For nearly 90 years, the opulence of the Gardner Museum was home to the stolen artwork, but where did it go? No one's sure, but investigators think the next stop on the stolen art's trail could be 3-1/2 miles away to this dingy garage on Dorchester Avenue. In the mid- to late-90s, the garage was home to TRC Auto Electric, the headquarters for Carmelo Merlino, a prominent Boston underworld figure who ran his crew here. In 1997, the FBI was listening as Merlino talked about the stolen artwork.

I spoke to FBI agent Geoff Kelly about the case in 2014. He declined our request for an interview before the anniversary.

Kelly: In fact, we had two informants who were into the shop and were into Merlino, and they were reporting back that Merlino was talking as if he had access to the Gardner Museum artwork.

Ward: And as federal investigators listened to their informants and wire taps, they heard Merlino talk about trying to return two of the stolen pieces, Rembrandt's "Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee," and, a source tells me, this tiny Rembrandt self-portrait etching titled "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man." Unfortunately, it fell through, but by the tenor of what he was saying, and we deemed it to be credible, we really believed that he did have access to it at the time.

Ward: But before any negotiations started, Merlino and members of his crew were busted in Boston on their way to rob the Loomis Fargo armored car depot in Easton. Authorities recovered weapons and these disguises. And that killed the deal for "The Storm on the Sea of Galilee."

G. Kelly: Well yeah, it certainly did, and their defense was that this whole thing was entrapment set up by the FBI to get him to cooperate about the Gardner Museum.

Ward: Carmelo Merlino died in prison always denying any role in the stolen artwork, but the investigative trail did not stop with Merlino. It also included another underworld figure, Bobby Guarante, an associate of Merlino's. Believe the possibility exists that he might have gotten that artwork, and eventually it might have gone to an associate of his by the name of Robert Gentile from Manchester, Connecticut.

Ward: But before going to Connecticut, investigators believe at least two of the stolen Gardner pieces moved to Portland, Maine, where Guarante's widow told investigators she saw her late husband give the pieces to Robert Gentile years before.

B. Kelly: He was close to the Merlino crew and to Guarante, and so we developed information that led us to coordinate with the Connecticut federal authorities where they did a search warrant on his home.

Ward: Kelly tells me the initial search of Gentile's home raised eyebrows.

Brian Kelly: And one of the items that was recovered from his home years after the theft was a list of the paintings and their approximate value, so that certainly corroborated the suspicions investigators had about Mr. Gentile.

Ward: But the search also yielded a potentially game-changing discovery.

Brian Kelly: They found a secret compartment beneath a shed that he had in the back yard, and everyone was all excited because they thought that this was going to be the hidden compartment where he had something related to the Gardner heist.

Ward: Brian Kelly was there as investigators opened that secret compartment, only to find no artwork.

Ward: What was that anticlimactic moment like when opened up that storage area and it was empty?

Kelly: It was kind of like striking out with the bases loaded. Not a good feeling. You think you're about to get something good and come out with nothing.

Ward: Robert Gentile has denied any involvement, but the FBI suspects Gentile helped move the art to Philadelphia where the local mob offered it up for sale in 2000. They were quite confident that the Gardner Museum paintings, at least a number of them, were actually offered for sale down there.

Ward: 30 years later, the stolen Gardner artwork is still missing, but investigators believe they're still on the right track. Certainly, there's been some theories that have come about involving the I.R.A., Corsican organized crime, Asian organized crime. I mean, really, global, and we're confident now, that as we continue to conduct this investigation along this path, we're able to eliminate those theories and really focus our efforts on this one.

Ward: Robert Gentile is now in his 80s, and he remains a person of interest in the Gardner investigation. The Feds hit Gentile hard, but he's not budging:

Here's Robert Gentile's lawyer. Have you received anything from the FBI that says otherwise, that he's no longer a person of interest in this case?

Attorney Ryan McGuigan: No, they don't send you a letter and say we're no longer interested in you anymore. You don't get the courtesy of that, but what you don't get is FBI agents following you around and raiding your house. So, that hasn't happened in a long time.

Ward: And did Mr. Gentile have any role in either the theft of the Gardner artwork or after the theft, trying to move it around, or tried to sell it to the underworld?

McGuigan: Not that I know of, and I haven't heard or seen any credible evidence that would point to that.

Narrator: The hunt for the stolen paintings doesn't stop there.

Ward: Do you know where the paintings are, David? Can you talk about it at all?

Narrator: The questions still being asked and the startling responses.

William Youngworth: I can facilitate the return of the artwork. There has to be certain guarantees.

Narrator: When "The Gardner Heist "30 Years Later" continues.

Ward: There's been no shortage of possible suspects in the Gardner Heist. Some of them have even claimed to know where the art is.

Ward: Hi, David, how's it feel to be out?

David Turner: Wonderful. Last November when he was released from decades in federal prison...

Ward: Do you have any idea where those paintings are? 52-year-old David Turner would not talk to me about the Gardner heist, but he has long been a person of interest. Some think David Turner resembles a sketch of one of the actual Gardner thieves, but Turner also has underworld ties to Carmelo Merlino and Robert Gentile. Turner was busted in the same 1999 Loomis Fargo aborted heist that landed Merlino in federal prison, and some believe he may know more about the Gardner heist than he's saying. Either way, Turner was keeping his mouth shut near the federal courthouse in Boston when he was released.

Ward: Do you have any knowledge of the Gardner heist?

David Turner: Please get away from me.

News Reporter archive footage: Can you say with certainty that you know where this art is, put your finger on it?

William Youngworth: That's a touchy question you ask.

Ward: William Youngworth was a Randolph antiques dealer with a lengthy criminal record. Youngworth publicly claimed he could broker the return of the stolen artwork. Indeed, he drove a "Boston Herald" reporter to a warehouse where, by flashlight, he showed the reporter what appeared to be Rembrandt's "Storm on the Sea of Galilee." Paint chips were produced. After analysis, the Feds determined those paint chips were more than three centuries old, and they came from the same area that Rembrandt painted. but they did not come from the stolen artwork. Still, in October 2000 after his release from jail, Youngworth did not back down.

William Youngworth: I can facilitate the return of the artwork. (sigh) There has to be certain guarantees that in returning this stuff, that they'll just be happy with getting it back.

Ward: William Youngworth was an associate of this man, legendary notorious Boston art thief and career criminal Myles Connor. Myles, like Youngworth, was actually in prison at the time of the Gardner heist, but Myles' prominence in Boston's underworld and his history of stealing art put him on many shortlists of possible suspects. Indeed, when Youngworth publicly claimed he could help return the artwork, one key condition was the release of Myles Connor from prison.

In 2009 while promoting his book "The Art of the Heist: "Confession of a Master Thief" on the Boston 25 morning news, Myles himself denied any involvement in the Gardner heist.

Myles Connor: The latest information I had on that was that some of the stuff was out of the country.

Ward: Now, one name many people still talk about, notorious South Boston mob boss James Whitey Bulger. Now, I covered his explosive trial in 2013 and I heard months of shocking testimony about his crimes. There was absolutely no mention of the Gardner heist. Brian Kelly prosecuted Bulger, and he thinks if Bulger's crew was behind it, the art would not be missing today.

Brian Kelly: Bulger's crew was not involved, and in fact, they wanted to find who was so they could take them for themselves and use them to their own advantage. Whitey Bulger himself was murdered in prison in 2018, so any knowledge he might have had went to the grave with him.

Narrator: Still ahead, a closer look at the missing masterpieces.

Amore: The most valuable thing ever stolen in the history of the world.

Narrator: And why a less valuable piece has a special reward all its own. "The Gardener Heist 30 Years Later" is back after this.

Ward: Let's never forget at the very center of this mystery Let's never forget at the very center of this mystery is the stolen art itself. Here's a closer look at the works, and remember, there's a 10 million dollar reward on the table. We'll start with the Dutch Room. The biggest ticket item of the Gardner heist was this, "The Concert" by Vermeer. Estimated value nearly a quarter of a billion dollars.

Amore: The most valuable thing ever stolen in the history of the world is the Vermeer.

Ward: Next, the most recognized painting of the entire heist, Rembrandt's "Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee." Estimated value, more than 150 million dollars. The thieves also grabbed a second Rembrandt from the same wall, "A Lady and Gentleman in Black." Nearby, the thieves helped themselves to a third Rembrandt, a postage stamp etching, "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man." The Gardner Museum nearly lost a fourth Rembrandt, this beautiful self portrait.

Amore: The speculation is that they just forgot that painting, because there's no reason why they wouldn't have taken it, and thank God they didn't because it's such a masterpiece.

Ward: Flinck's "Landscape with an Obelisk" was not so lucky. Mrs. Gardner herself once thought this was a Rembrandt. Maybe the thieves did, too. Also taken from the Dutch Room, a curious choice. A Chinese Shang Dynasty gu, similar to a wine beaker. It dates from the 12th century BC. And in the museum Short Gallery, And in the museum Short Gallery, the thieves grabbed five pieces by Edgar Degas. These are worth a combined one million dollars, and they all feature horse racing. Most notably, the watercolor "Leaving the Paddock." Nearby, the thieves stole a bronze eagle, or finial, from the top of a framed Napoleonic flag. For the finial itself, we have an extra $100,000 reward, which is unusual to have a reward that's valued higher than the actual object. And finally, from the Blue Room on the museum's first floor, Edouard Manet's "Chez Tortoni," its frame found on the security director's chair.

It is possible that whoever has the art right now is afraid of legal trouble if they come forward. I asked Boston U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling's office about immunity.

The office said: "Under the right circumstances, "we would consider granting a limited timeframe immunity "in connection with the return of all or some of the art."

For more on this notorious crime, check out our "New England's Unsolved" podcast on the Gardner heist.

Thanks for joining us for this "New England's Unsolved" special. I'm Bob Ward. For all of us at "Boston 25 News," goodnight.

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