Gardner heist related information by and about Stephen Kurkjian
Restraining the Media at the CIA Stephen Kurkjian, Globe Staff and Jeff McConnell, Special to the Globe, Boston Globe August 22, 1989"
"WASHINGTON - A former public information officer for William H. Webster, the head of the CIA, told a Harvard University audience last month that improved relations between the press and the CIA had helped him to persuade three major newspapers or their reporters to kill, alter or delay articles concerning CIA operations.
"About a year ago, when the story broke with the arrest in West Germany of retired Army Sgt. Clyde Lee Conrad, Baker said he informed the Times reporter, who was able to produce "a lengthy account of the espionage ring and the arrests."
The reporter waited until March, however, to publish the account of Conrad's tricking of the CIA to pay him $50,000 [https://www.nytimes.com/1989/03/10/world/ex-us-sergeant-s-spy-case-is-said-to-grow-in-seriousness.html] for useless information."
Reporter's {Kurkjian's] story [Master Thieves] could use an Editor by Art Taylor The Times (Trenton, New Jersey) March 20, 2015
New video could be key to solving $500 million art heist CBS New August 8, 2015
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Robbery Gets Netflix Treatment
by Alin K. Gregorian The Armenian Mirror Spectator May 27, 2021
Was anyone watching the Gardner Museum watchman? by Stephen Kurkjian Boston Globe March 10. 2013
AP's Putzel to succeed Kurkjian as the Globe's
Washington chief
by Boston Globe August 13, 1991
Gardner rebuts `details' of heist Says ex-convict's
claims are wrong
by Ric Kahn and Stephen Kurkjian, Boston Globe August 27, 1997
Offer Made On Painting photo by Ric Kahn and Stephen Kurkjian Boston Globe September 12, 1997
Verdict, tale of photos twist Gardner case
by Stephen Kurkjian and Paul Langner Boston Globe
October 2, 1997
Art Talks on again, Youngworth claims by Stephen Kurkjian Boston Globe February 19, 1998
10 years later no sign of a real break in Gardner Musseum theft By Stephen Kurkjian Boston Globe March 18, 2000 Lost And Found by Stephen Kurkjian Boston Sunday
Globe December 17, 2000
Filmmmaker [Rebecca Dreyfus Stolen] returns to scene of Gardner crime by Stephen Kurkjian Boston Globe May 14, 2006
Grand jury to hear art theft case by Stephen Kurkjian Boston Globe December 17, 2007
Gardner Museum Chief repeats reward offer by Stephen Kurkjian Boston Globe March 16, 2008
"The reality is more complicated and elusive, which is ever the way with this case."
Untangling Gardner art heist: Some details tantalizing as trail grew colder by Stephen Kurkjian Boston Globe March 15, 2009
Whitey Bulger arrest may yield clues on Gardner heist by Stephen Kurkjian Boston Globe June 26, 2011
Just because of who he is and what he knew about crimes and corruption in Boston over the years, the Gardner case has to be at the top of the list of other things that he gets asked about, Donald K. Stern, former US attorney, who from 1993 to 2001 presided over the investigation into the Gardner theft as well as the hunt for Bulger, said.
Mafioso's widow confirms husband gave art to friend Milton J. Valencia and Stephen Kurkjian Boston Globe May 12, 2012
Art Thieves Known, FBI says
Boston Globe
March 18, 2013 by Stephen Kurkjian and Milton J. Valencia Gardner Museum Heist 25th Anniversary: Author Stephen Kurkjian on Noon News March 18, 2013
WBUR Interview March 12, 2015 of Stephen Kurkjian
Veteran reporter [Kurkjian] stays on scent of the Gardner heist Dorchester News March 12, 2015
An interview with Stephen Kurkjian, formerly of the Boston Globe, about art heists, investigation and journalism by J.R. Hennessey December 24, 2015
"The most important thing is to keep [your] eye on the narrative." Stephen Kurkjian
Latest search for Gardner paintings came up empty by Stephen Kurkjian Boston Globe December 27, 2015
"The Gardner thieves have never been publicly identified, although in 2013 the head of the FBI's Boston office said at a press conference that the agency knew who had pulled
off the robbery and that both men were dead."
Kurkjian Master Thieves Gardner robbery lecture Weston Library January 20, 2016
Interview of Stephen Kurkjian about his Gardner Robbery related book "Master Thieves" by Joseph Catalano at the Thomas Crane Library, Quincy, MA March 31, 2016
Master Thieves and The Art of the Con By Jonathon Keats
New York Times June 25, 2015
A final attempt to recover stolen art by Stephen Kurkjian April 1, 2016
Notorious Boston mobster-turned-pastor
[Robert Luisi] has clues about Gardner heist by By Stephen Kurkjian and Shelley Murphy Boston Globe July 26, 2016
Mysteries In The Museum: Crime And Deception In Art WNPR September 8, 2017 Interview with Stephen Kurkjian
The Revere Public Library presents Stephen Kurkjian May 16, 2018
WBUR Last Seen Podcast Promo July 19, 2018
Researchgate Stephen Kurkjian Interview March 1, 2019 More than 30 years later, Paul Calantropo claim in the Gardner Museum art heist surfaces
Shelley Murphy Boston Globe November 30, 2021
Master Thieves by Stephen Kurkjian, the complete book "Hardly master thieves, the intruders pulled
the majestic Rembrandt from where it hung on the far wall of
the gallery and threw it to the marbled floor, shattering the
glass in the huge frame." Stephen Kurkjian "Master Thieves" page 49
Stephen Kurkjian at the Southborough Library March 10, 2016
Restraining the Media at the CIA Stephen Kurkjian, Globe Staff and Jeff McConnell, Special to the Globe, Boston Globe August 22, 1989"
"WASHINGTON - A former public information officer for William H. Webster, the head of the CIA, told a Harvard University audience last month that improved relations between the press and the CIA had helped him to persuade three major newspapers or their reporters to kill, alter or delay articles concerning CIA operations.
"About a year ago, when the story broke with the arrest in West Germany of retired Army Sgt. Clyde Lee Conrad, Baker said he informed the Times reporter, who was able to produce "a lengthy account of the espionage ring and the arrests."
The reporter waited until March, however, to publish the account of Conrad's tricking of the CIA to pay him $50,000 [https://www.nytimes.com/1989/03/10/world/ex-us-sergeant-s-spy-case-is-said-to-grow-in-seriousness.html] for useless information."
Restraining the Media at the CIA Stephen Kurkjian, Globe Staff and Jeff McConnell, Special to the Globe, Boston Globe August 22, 1989"
"WASHINGTON - A former public information officer for William H. Webster, the head of the CIA, told a Harvard University audience last month that improved relations between the press and the CIA had helped him to persuade three major newspapers or their reporters to kill, alter or delay articles concerning CIA operations.
"About a year ago, when the story broke with the arrest in West Germany of retired Army Sgt. Clyde Lee Conrad, Baker said he informed the Times reporter, who was able to produce "a lengthy account of the espionage ring and the arrests."
The reporter waited until March, however, to publish the account of Conrad's tricking of the CIA to pay him $50,000 [https://www.nytimes.com/1989/03/10/world/ex-us-sergeant-s-spy-case-is-said-to-grow-in-seriousness.html] for useless information."
Art Talks on again, Youngworth claims Stephen Kurkjian Boston Globe Thursday February 19, 1998
Offer Made On Painting photo
by Ric Kahn and Stephen Kurkjian Boston Globe September 12, 1997
Gardner rebuts `details' of heist Says ex-convict's
claims are wrong
by Ric Kahn and Stephen Kurkjian, Boston Globe August 27, 1997
Report reignites art heist probe Officials
approach reporter [Tom Mashberg] by
Stephen Kurkjian and Judy Rakowsky, Globe Staff August 28, 1997
CNN Anderson Cooper 360 report, segment includes Rick Abath on camera interview March 24, 2013
CNN Anderson Cooper 360 report, segment includes Rick Abath on camera interview March 24, 2013
Was anyone watching the Gardner Museum watchman? by Stephen Kurkjian Boston Globe March 10. 2013
Copyright © 2026 All Rights Reserved kerry@gardnerheist.com
As the section on "The Heist" transitions to "The Seach," readers might expect to plunge into the [nonexistent] investigation, but Kurkjian leaps instead to 1997,
when Tom Mashberg, then at the Boston Herald, reported that he'd seen one of the stolen paintings."
"The night watchman has somewhere in his cranium the knowledge of the identity of one of the two thieves." Stephen Kurkjian
“My major advice to them [The Barnicle Brothers] was not to try to solve it [the Gardner heist], that if they tried to solve it, it would be too frustrating for them.
I told them I had tried since 1997 and I still know nothing about who did it, why they did it and most importantly, where the paintings had been stashed.” he said.
Sources familiar with the investigation believe that Youngworth -- who has already met with the Gardner's head
of security and with federal investigators -- was recycling inaccurate details from old news reports.
In a case filled with enough intrigue and hairpin plot twists to fill a novel, William P. Youngworth III --
the renegade Randolph antiques dealer who says he has access to art stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner
Museum -- is headed back to prison for possession of a stolen van.
W. Thomas Cassano, the lead FBI agent on the case, said he
doubted that David Houghton and Robert Donati - two local, low-level hoodlums whose names surfaced during the
investigation - pulled off the heist.
There are a few absolutes that the FBI and Interpol, the international law enforcement agency, follow in negotiating the return of stolen artwork, and foremost among them is that no one who was involved in a theft or who acquired the paintings knowing they were stolen can benefit financially from their return.
"To allow someone to get a reward or insurance money for stealing a painting will only encourage more thefts," says John Trahan, head of the FBI's major crimes unit in Boston, who was in charge of the investigation
into the Cezanne theft.
While the FBI has chased tips throughout the world, privately the investigators say they have never received a single, credible tip.
The probe now rests primarily with one FBI agent [Geoff Kelly] who
is also responsible for investigating other major thefts covered by the Bureau's Boston office.
In addition, the FBI's decision to handle the case entirely on its own, without the assistance of local and
Massachusetts State Police, has undercut the probe's effectiveness, according to local and State Police officers.
For example, even though State and South Shore police coordinated a drug investigation that kept Merlino, Turner,
and others under surveillance during the 18 months before and after the Gardner heist, the assistance of those
officers was never sought by the FBI working the Gardner case.
"[Elene] Guarente, 61, said in a reluctant interview Friday that she
provided her best recollection of the piece to the federal agents and later to a federal grand jury investigating the theft.
She told the Globe that her recollection of the painting did not match any of the paintings and sketches authorities showed her.
"That was the only picture that Bob gave [Gentile] that I know of," she said.
"The FBI believes with a high degree of confidence in the years after the theft the art was transported to Connecticut and the Philadelphia region and some of the art was taken to Philadelphia where it was offered for sale by those responsible for the theft. With that confidence, we have identified the thieves, who are members of a criminal organization with a base in the mid-Atlantic states and New England, Richard DesLauriers, special agent in charge of the Boston office of the FBI,
said," Kurkjian reported
Names not divulged; trail of Gardner masterworks ended with a sale try a decade ago; Investigators cite progress, seek help in cracking 1990 case
"Federal investigators, in an unprecedented display of confidence that the most infamous art theft in history will soon be solved, said Monday that they know who is behind the Gardner Museum heist
23 years ago and that some of the priceless artwork was offered for sale on Philadelphia's black market as recently as a decade ago."
81 Minutes: Inside the Greatest Art Heist in History includes Rick Abath on camera interview March 20, 2013
Transcript
Fact Check: The "the head of the FBI's Boston office" did not say the thieves were dead in 2013 at a press conference in 2013.
"I had worked on it probably about ten years at the Globe, but it took me about two years to write to do some more reporting, rigorous reporting,
and I think the New York Times in its review says you don't have to have any more books about the Gardner theft, you get everything in this book as to the various people and the efforts that were put into the theft and the investigation."
Actual New York Times review of Kurkjian's
error filled book, Master Thieves which is combined with a review of Art of the Con by Anthony Amore.
In a series of interviews from his Memphis home, the 55-year-old Luisi revealed that one of those associates, Robert “Unc” Guarente, told him years ago that the stolen Gardner paintings
were buried beneath a home in Florida.
Over the past year, Calantropo has been working behind the scenes with an unlikely assortment of sleuths, including
a retired law enforcement official, two former convicts and retired Boston Globe investigative reporter Stephen Kurkjian in hopes of finding the artwork.
In April, the group signed an agreement with the Gardner Museum.
Fact Check: Calantropo was working behind the scenes for years with Kurkjian during a time when the retired Kurkjian wrote numerous articles
about the Gardner heist case for the Boston Globe.
Sources familiar with the investigation believe that Youngworth -- who has already met with the Gardner's head
of security and with federal investigators -- was recycling inaccurate details from old news reports.
Ultimately, the investigator said, those who led Mashberg to the warehouse and showed him the painting
apparently are savvy enough to realize they cannot win the immunity from prosecution they are seeking by bluffing
that they have the artwork.