Jeremy Siegel: This is GBH's Morning Edition. Thirty-four years ago today, one of the most infamous heists in museum history unfolded at the Isabella Stewart Gardner in Boston. A group of thieves disguised as Boston police officers stole 13 works, some painted by masters including Rembrandt, Degas and Vermeer, estimated to be worth at least half a billion dollars. The mystery today remains unsolved, and one man is in charge of the investigation. Anthony Amore is director of security and chief investigator at the Gardner Museum and joins us now for more. Good morning.
Anthony Amore: Good morning.
Siegel: So remind us: what do we know about what unfolded on March 18, 1990?
Amore: Well, we could probably do an hour on that. We know a heck of a lot of what happened. We know, as you stated, two thieves disguised themselves as police officers and used a ruse to enter the building, and subdued the guards and spent the next 81 minutes taking some of the world's greatest masterworks. To date, none of them have been recovered. For 34 years, the museum has been pursuing its art. No museum in the world has ever done what the Gardner has done, which is launch its own unceasing effort to recover the works, alongside the FBI, and the FBI has been at it, by our side, for all those years. So, enormous amount of work goes into this and we'll never give up on them.
Siegel: There is a $10 million reward for information leading directly to the safe return of the stolen artworks. Have there been any leads or new information that's come about in the past 30 years?
Amore: Oh my God. Yeah. Mean we get leads, pretty frequently. We get lots of tips. We work on the leads, but we don't just wait for the calls to come in. We develop our own information and proactively go out and speak to people that we believe might have information that could help us, and that might be the smallest little bit of information, a tiny piece of the puzzle. But it's as you can see, it's a long process. And it's not unusual in the annals of art heist for masterpieces to be gone this long before being recovered.
Siegel: Richard Abath, who was working as a security guard at the museum when this theft happened, when the artwork was stolen, recently died at the age of 57. Thinking about the decades ahead, and as you continue this investigation, there's a chance that firsthand knowledge of what actually happened here could be gone or be lost in the years forward. Do you think this mystery will ever be solved?
Amore: Oh, absolutely. I think it's really important to point out that we've gathered all the information that's humanly possible about how the theft was perpetrated. What matters to us right now is: Where are the paintings today? We could spend all day talking about the finer details of where the thieves were inside the building, at what time. But that doesn't really matter. All I really care about is where are the paintings today, how can I get them, and how quickly can we get them back on the walls where they belong? And that's our focus.
Siegel: What have you heard from folks in the tips about where these things might be? Because you have an open line on the website, your name is right there, alongside an email address and a phone number where people can call in and say, I think I might know where this Rembrandt is. What have you heard from people?
Amore: Oh, Jeremy, we've heard all manner of things. There's no place in the world that someone hasn't said our paintings currently are. But when you look at the history of art crime in America, the paintings don't travel far from the place where they're stolen. So you're most likely in our local area somewhere.
Siegel: So they could be around Boston, you think?
Amore: Oh, absolutely. Yeah. But I'd be more than happy to fly to any place tomorrow or today to pick them up. But the most likely place would be the closest, especially since there's no information that they traveled very far. We did get some information that they may have been shopped in Philadelphia, at one point, years ago, but we don't have any information whether any of them were sold there. So we continue to explore all avenues.
Siegel: Do we know at all why someone would want these pieces of art? I mean, they're beautiful masterworks, but trying to sell them would, of course, have you and everybody else investigating immediately on their case. So presumably they're just being hidden somewhere. What's the point of that?
Amore: Well, so first of all, the reason they're stolen is the same for almost every art heist. Ninety-nine percent of the time, they're stolen for money. And what happens is the next day the thieves see that they're far too valuable and highly recognizable to traffic. And they do exactly what you said. They hide them, and often they will hold them in case they can use them for some sort of negotiating, advantage with police or prosecutors, as we saw in 1975 when Miles Connor stole a Rembrandt from the MFA and used it to negotiate a smaller sentence.
Siegel: We sometimes hear about folks discovering a random, priceless work of art in their basement or at a thrift shop. Should people be on the lookout? Like if they get a new place, checking the basement, checking the attic in case there's a stolen Rembrandt in there?
Amore: Absolutely. What's to lose? I mean, if you get to a new place, you do that anyway. I would really hope that people will look at our website. The Boston Globe actually has a nice interactive today about the quiz, about what pieces were stolen from the Gardner, which were not. It's really important that people look at artwork, not just in case they might see them somewhere, but to remember them, because they truly are masterworks by the world's greatest artists.
Siegel: Thirty-four years since these works were stolen, does the museum mark the occasion in any way? Is today a somber day at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum? Does the staff get together at all?
Amore: No, we don't. We don't focus on the somber nature of it. Yes, I speak to Anne Hawley, who was the director at the time. Yes, our current director, Peggy Fogelman, will come in and we'll talk about it a bit, but we focus on the work. And when I'm done speaking to you, I will continue investigating today with that mission in mind, bringing the paintings back so the public can enjoy them.
Siegel: There are often crowds or lines to look at and pose next to the frames where the artwork once hung. The Gardner Museum is well-loved by people across the country, well-loved by locals. Does this at all add to the draw of the museum?
Amore: I would say it does. However, it doesn't as much as if we had a Vermeer in its frame or Rembrandt's only seascape. These things would draw in yet more people. One thing we don't have at the Gardner Museum is a problem with attendance. We're bustling. And the museum has never been better-attended. I would say this about people coming to see the empty frames, though. That does happen with those same people, when they leave, they're talking about something else, because the museum is vibrant and it's filled with beautiful art and horticulture, and there's so much to see here that it's really an unbelievable experience, empty frames or not.
Siegel: Anthony Amore, director of security at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Thank you so much for your time.
Amore: Thank you, Jeremy.
Siegel: You're listening to GBH News.
