BOSTON (AP) — For decades, the 1990 theft of 13 artifacts from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum — now worth more than $500 million — remained unsolved.
It remains one of the biggest art thefts in history – recent museum thefts, including a daylight theft at the Louvre that involved very few works and were quickly solved. In 2013, the FBI said it knew who was responsible for the Boston museum robbery but refused to name them, fueling speculation that continues today.
A former FBI agent who led the investigation for more than two decades is now providing the first detailed account of how investigators reached that conclusion — and publicly identifying the people he believes were involved. In a new book, Geoff Kelly examines how artifacts were moved through criminal networks, where violence claimed the lives of key suspects and witnesses, and challenges long-held theories by revisiting key details.
The irony at the center is that Gardner’s intention was to keep the museum static in time, with his will stating that nothing would change in the Venetian palazzo-inspired building after his death. Gardner, who lived in the museum and died there in 1924, intended for the pieces of painting, sculpture and architecture to remain as they were arranged.
The empty golden frames of the missing paintings still hang in the museum today – silent witnesses to what was taken.
Art theft
Early on March 18, 1990, as Boston wound down from St. Patrick’s Day celebrations, two men dressed as police officers arrived at the museum and, in violation of protocol, persuaded a security guard to let them in.
The men handcuffed the guards in the basement and rushed to the museum’s Dutch Room, where they took works by Degas and Manet and cut Vermeer’s “The Concert” and Rembrandt’s “Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee” from their frames.
They also took a Napoleonic eagle finial — a piece of decorative metal of relatively little value that investigators later found puzzling — and the museum’s security videotapes.
The museum offered a $5 million reward that they doubled a decade later for information leading to the recovery of the works.
Boston-area network of criminals
Some tips point to Boston mob figures including the Irish Republican Army and notorious crime boss Whitey Bulger.
Kelly followed a lead to France, where he watched through binoculars as an FBI agent, posing as a wealthy middleman, drinking champagne and eating strawberries — aboard a yacht — in an attempt to ferret out suspected Corsican mobsters.
Closer to home, agents searched homes throughout New England, relying on informants. A triple killer known as “Meatball” secretly recorded conversations with unsuspecting accomplices in hopes of making money for his family.
But none of the suggestions led to the painting.
Violence complicates matters
In the decades following the robbery, several people believed to be connected to the robbery were killed, and another died under suspicious circumstances.
Robert “Bobby” Donati, a Boston mob associate, long a suspect in the case, was found stabbed to death in 1991, his body left in the trunk of a car after his home was ransacked.
Years earlier, Donati visited the Gardner with another known art thief, Miles Connor, to frame it for a robbery and said that if he took the museum’s Napoleonic finale, it would be his “calling card.” Years later, a jeweler told investigators that Donati tried to sell the finial from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum but backed out, saying it was “too hot.”
A separate line of evidence centers on George Reissfelder, who investigators believe owned the getaway car.
Kelly tracked down Reissfelder’s brother, a retired military officer who initially didn’t believe his brother was involved. He breaks down after being shown Manet’s “Chase Tortoni,” recognizing it as the painting that hangs over his brother’s bed.
Reissfelder later died under suspicious circumstances. When investigators searched his home, the painting was missing.
Both men had ties to TRC Auto Electric, a Dorchester shop linked to Charles “Chuck” Merlino’s team.
Research on limited resources
Although investigators believed they knew who was responsible, they had a hard time finding definitive evidence.
In its early stages, the FBI assigned a single agent to the case, which Kelly said slowed progress.
“You have to keep in mind when you talk about research, they come in dollars and cents,” Kelly said. It was “like pulling teeth” to secure resources. At the time, federal investigators in Boston focused heavily on violent crime, drug trafficking, and organized crime.
Kelly said the decision to release the surveillance footage despite the objections of investigators became a permanent distraction. With no usable video from the night of the robbery, prosecutors released footage from the night before that shows a museum employee entering the building after his car broke down. Kelly said he objected to the theory that the employee was making the museum’s case, as that possibility had already been reviewed and dismissed. The footage cast doubt on years of misplacement, as the man was later determined not to be involved.
Theories about interior work in museums
Questions remain as to whether this was an inside job.
In photos from that night, a museum guard is seen handcuffed in the basement, his head wrapped in duct tape.
Investigators noted that shortly before the heist, the guard opened the door against policy — the area behind which the thieves were seen waiting — a move investigators considered highly unusual and suspicious.
“This is an immutable law of time and space,” Kelly said. “I think there was enough information at the time to charge him. Was it enough to convict him? I don’t know.”
By the time investigators examined those questions more closely, Kelly said, the statute of limitations had expired, leaving them with little leverage to compel cooperation.
The museum guard, Rick Abath, denied any involvement in the theft. He died in 2024.
Disappearing Artifacts
Kelly describes the lost artefacts and describes them as “perfect fugitives”.
“They don’t go to the doctor. They don’t stop for speeding. They don’t leave fingerprints,” he said. “They can get lost.”
Unlike human fugitives, he said, artifacts can also be copied.
Over the years, that has meant following false leads — including paintings spotted at Reno antiques markets, hanging in private homes and appearing on an episode of the TV show “Monk.”
Because the works are so recognizable, it is almost impossible to sell them to the public.
“Stealing an artifact from a museum, that’s the easy part,” Kelly said. “Taking advantage of it, that’s the hard part.”
He imagines that the pictures will come out one day – surviving the robbers.
“I have no doubt they still are,” he said
