The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Heist

On St. Patrick’s Day (March 18th) morning in 1990, two men disguised as police entered the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. The two quickly subdued the guards, and made off with 13 works of art totaling an estimated 500 million dollars, making it the highest-valued museum heist in history.

The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, which opened to the public in 1903, was built as a location for Isabella Stewart Gardner to store her private art collection. Upon Gardner’s death in 1924, the museum was left with a $3.6 million dollar endowment contingent on two stipulations; no one is to alter the arrangement of the artwork, and no artwork is permitted to be sold from or added to the collection.

By the early 1980s, the museum was suffering the effects of heavy financial strain leaving the building which lacked modern amenities such as climate control and a modern security system, in desperate need of maintenance, however, it was only after the FBI uncovered a 1982 plot by local criminals to rob the facility that funds allocated toward upgrades.

The museum seemed to take the threat seriously, adding 60 infrared motion detectors, and CCTV cameras on each corner of the building’s perimeter, though the upgrade lacked the addition of interior cameras, still relying heavily on the use of patrolling guards whose only method of contacting the police was to press a button located at the security desk. Ultimately, it would be this decision that allowed for the robbery to take place as two men disguised as police were able to con Rick Abath and a fellow guard Randy Hestand into allowing them access into the museum at which point the guards were restrained and led, heads wrapped in duct tape, to the basement of the building where they were handcuffed to a steam pipe and workbench.

After subduing the guards, the two robbers proceeded to move room to room within the museum for the next 81 minutes gathering 13 works of art totaling an estimated 500 million dollars before checking on the guards one last time and then disappearing into the night.

When the next guard arrived for his morning shift and could not establish communication with anyone inside he notified the security director who entered the building and called the police after finding the security desk empty. When police arrived they found the guards still in the basement where the robbers had left them.

In 1994, museum director Anne Hawley received an anonymous letter stating that the writer was attempting to negotiate the return of the artwork for immunity and the sum of $2.6 million dollars. The director was instructed to reply with a coded message in the Boston Globe if she agreed to the terms. Hawley informed the FBI who then contacted the newspaper to print the message in the May 1, 1994 edition. A few days later, Hawley received another message stating that the writer had become increasingly nervous over the FBI’s attempts to determine their identity and insisted they needed more time to evaluate their options. Hawley never heard from the writer ever again.

Stolen Artwork

Robbery Timeline

12:30 a.m. – Two men who looked like police officers were seen in a parked hatchback on Palace Road about a hundred feet from the side entrance of the museum

1:00 a.m. – Rick Abath returns to the security desk just after opening and shutting the side entrance door

1:20 a.m.  – The two thieves approached the side door and rang the buzzer claiming to be checking on a disturbance call

1:24 a.m. – Abath reluctantly allows the two men entry although he is adamant that he knows nothing of a disturbance

1:35 a.m. – The thieves have subdued the guards

1:48 a.m. – The thieves make entrance into the Dutch Room

1:51 a.m. – As one thief continues in the Dutch Room the other makes their way to the Short Gallery

2:40 a.m. – The side door is detected open, presumably the thieves are loading the artwork into the hatchback

2:45 a.m. – The side door opens for the last time as the thieves leave

Suspects

• Rick Abath
• Whitey Bulger
• Brian McDevitt
• Merlino gang
• Robert Guarente 
• Robert Gentile
• David Turner
• Bobby Donati 

Sources:

gardnermuseum.org

smithsomianmag.com