When
you hear names such as Rembrandt or Degas, what comes to mind? Many would look
on and think of the beautiful and amazing artistic expressions created by
artistic geniuses. Others would ponder how much these works would be worth, and
wishing they owned them.
Many
of those who do see the dollar signs however, would still proudly display their
priceless pieces of artistic history. There would be fleeting moments when the
sight of one of these masterpieces would draw the viewer into a land of
creativity and beauty, with not a single conscious or unconscious thought
revolving around money.
Now,
let’s pretend for a moment that you do own one or more of these creations. I
can only imagine how amazing that would feel. Now, imagine you go to your
conservatory, because everyone who has art has a conservatory, right?
You go
there to admire your priceless collection, only to discover the worst violation
imaginable. Some person or persons has broken into your home and cut the
canvases out of their frames leaving you with a macabre scene of tattered
canvas remnants and empty gilded frames.
I’ve been robbed before of a
collection of DVD’s and a Playstation 2, and I felt like I got punched in the
stomach, but to lose multi-millions of dollars’ worth of priceless art has to
be excruciating and near unbearable.
To make matters worse, not one shred of
usable evidence is recovered and decades later, you still have no clue who the
perpetrator or perpetrators were. What a horrible scenario strait out of the
best heist movie, right? Unfortunately, something like this has actually
happened right here in the United States.
Boston,
Massachusetts is one of the oldest towns in the country, and likely has many
mysteries. I could probably do a series of posts on Boston alone. Boston was
first settled on September 7th, 1630 and became incorporated as a
town on March 4th, 1822. It is the largest city in New England and
it is the 23rd most populated city in the United States. It has seen
major historical events including; key battles during the American Revolution,
the Boston Massacre, the Boston Tea Party, the Battle of Bunker Hill and the
Siege of Boston.
 |
| Boston Skyline |
 |
| Boston Tea Party December 16th, 1773 |
Along
with a plethora of buildings from the 17th-21st
centuries, there is the Boston Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. This museum has
been able to boast priceless collections of art.
 |
| Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum |
Before I continue with this
story, let me preface it by saying, that art museums such as this are usually
caught between a rock and a hard place. They would love to increase their
security and safety measures for their priceless collections, but they would
lose paying patrons who want to get close enough to study the art. What
happened at this museum doesn’t reflect the competency of the curator or others
who worked at the museum.
Boston
has a sizable Irish population, and as you can imagine, they take St. Patrick’s
Day to the extreme. March 17th, 1990 was no different. As March 17th
passed over midnight and into the wee hours of March 18th, the
museum’s worst nightmare was about to be realized.
 |
| Green River for St. Patrick's Day (Boston) |
 |
| Boston St. Patrick's Day Parade |
The
only people who were in the museum at this time of night, were two security
guards. Most likely the night of the robbery has been carefully planned as many
would be drunk and police would be preoccupied with assaults, public
intoxication and DUI’s to mention a few.
Shortly
after midnight, two police officers approached the museum and went up to the
intercom. They radioed the guards and stated they needed to come in and look
around because they said they were responding to a call.
Even though it was
against protocol, the guards let the officers into the museum. Immediately, the
two “police officers” overtook the two security guards, took them to the
basement and tied one to some pipes and the other to a workbench. One of the
“officers” told the guards, “this is a robbery, don’t give us any problems, and
you won’t get hurt”. One of the guards replied, “don’t worry, they don’t pay me
enough to get hurt”.
As they left, in their wake were thirteen
missing paintings cut out of their frames valued in 1990 at about $300,000,000
and it is estimated the value today is about $500,000,000. The thieves had
gotten away with the largest art heist in American history. The incapacitated
guards weren’t discovered until morning relief came from the next shift.
Over
the last twenty-seven years, this case has been investigated by numerous law
enforcement investigators. They followed up on numerous leads, and even offered
a $5,000,000 reward for information leading to the recovery of the art, and the
apprehension of the thieves.
The
investigators had a time of excitement in 2008, as a potential break in the
case presented itself. The evidence received started to point to a Boston
gangster named David Turner. Carmello Merlino, Turner’s crime boss, tried to
butter-up the FBI for a shorter prison sentence for himself on an unrelated
drug crime by giving them information about the stolen paintings. One witness
also said that they had seen the thieves before the robbery, and one of them
had “Asian eyes”, which fit with Turner’s physical description.
 |
| Suspect - David Turner (with artist rendering of witness description) |
There
is further evidence that gives weight to Turner being one of the thieves. It is
suspected that Turner killed many of those involved in the robbery. None of
these theories have fully come together, and the case still remains unsolved
for the last twenty-seven years. Turner is eligible for parole in 2032 and I’m
sure he will be surveilled constantly in hopes that he will lead the
authorities to the cache of stolen art. One day in the near future, the case
may finally be solved.
To
this day, the Boston Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum believes that they will
see the paintings again, although less than 5% of stolen art is ever recovered.
To honor the missing masterpieces and to remember the loss, thirteen empty
frames still hang in the museum to this day.
 |
| Empty Frames at Gardner Museum |
 |
| Empty Frames at Gardner Museum |
Did
David Turner do it? We may never know and this goes down in the annals of
History’s Mysteries.
No comments:
Post a Comment