The Great Art Heist of 1990

On March 18th, 1990 — just after 1:20 AM — two men dressed as police walk up

to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. They ring the buzzer. “It’s a disturbance

call,” they say. The guards buzz them in. It’s a decision that will cost the

world half a billion dollars. Inside, the fake officers handcuff the security

guards… and quietly tape them up in the basement. No alarms triggered. The museum is theirs.

For the next 81 minutes, the thieves roam freely through the galleries…

cutting priceless paintings out of their frames. A Rembrandt — the only seascape he

ever painted. A Vermeer — one of just 34 known in the world. Manet… Degas… a