The Gardner Incident

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

The Investigation

Investigation of the Gardner heist has lead authorities on a wild goose chase involving Boston's Irish mob and the IRA. Many people theorize that a heist of this scale could not be done without the O.K. of Boston's organized crime underworld. Boston's notorious leader of the Winter Hill Gang, Whitey Bulger, is believed to have a great deal of knowledge concerning the robbery.

The IRA, an organization dedicated to overthrowing British rule in Northern Ireland, is also suspected in being involved in the heist. The paramilitary group has been involved in similar crimes. In 1974, the IRA stole nineteen paintings from the Russborough House near Dublin, Ireland as a bargaining attempt for four imprisoned IRA members.

To date, the art from the Gardner Museum was never recovered and despite a ton of suspects and leads, the police and FBI have little evidence to convict any one of the many suspects.

Other Suspects Involved

The son of a convicted cocaine dealer, Charles O. Pappas tried to stay afloat in the netherworld by snitching on criminal associates whenever prosecutors promised to bring down the hammer, according to law enforcement officials.
So when Pappas, then 23, faced a minimum 15-year prison term in connection to a $1 million-a-year cocaine trafficking ring, he floated stolen artwork and information on the Isabella Stewart Gardner heist as bargaining chip.
The Herald - quoting sources - first reported in 1992 that Pappas and Dorchester drug lord Carmello Merlino offered to trade information on the 1990 Gardner theft in exchange for leniency on the drug charges. The offer also included promises about the whereabouts of $30,000 worth of stolen paintings from the Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Museum in Cambridge in 1985.
Although sources told the Herald that negotiations between investigators and lawyers for Pappas and Merlino occurred, the $300 million art theft has not been solved and there is no hard evidence Pappas had access to the works.

Charlestown underworld leader Joseph P. Murray led a violent life that ended in a bloody death at the hands of his wife in 1994.
Somewhere along the line, his name arose as a possible conduit for the recovery of paintings stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.
The story goes that Murray was eyeballed from time to time by Hub FBI agents trying to crack the case. One proponent of this tale was William P. Youngworth III, the shady Randolph antiques dealer and Gardner gadfly who popped up in the late 1990s claiming insight into the heist. “Joe Murray had the art hidden away in New York,” Youngworth told the Herald in 1997. “When he was killed that was the end of it.”
Murray was in fact shot dead by his wife, in Belgrade Lakes, Maine. But the rest of the speculation was not grounded in anything provable.
What is known is that Joseph P. Murray was a brutal criminal who tried to smuggle arms to the IRA aboard the Gloucester-based trawler Valhalla in 1984 - one of the more storied episodes in Boston IRA history. The Valhalla was seized, and several IRA figures were jailed as a result, Murray among them.

Suspects Involved with the Gardner Heist

In a bid for leniency for his involvement in a $1-million-a-year cocaine ring, he offered to produce a $5,000 painting filched in 1985 from the Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Museum in Cambridge.
But when Carmello Merlino faced 25 years in federal prison for his involvement in a botched heist at an armored car depot, the reputed New England Mafia figure claimed he was set up over bogus assertions he had access to $300 million of stolen art from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.
“The government pulled a real fast one,‘ Merlino, then 68, told U.S. District Judge Richard G. Stearns before being sentenced to 47 years in federal prison on Nov. 22, 2002. He died three years later at age 71.

The Night of The Heist

When did it happen?
· March 18, 1990. Two men were allowed into the museum at around 1:24AM.

What happened?
· Although the thieves didn’t show any weapons, they managed to handcuff and bound the two guards that let them in and left them in the basement.
· It took them less than 90 minutes to prowl around the museum where they took three Rembrandts, a Vermeer painting, a Chinese beaker, a painting by Govaert Flinck, 5 Degas’, a bronze eagle that had decorated a Napoleonic flag, and a Manet.
· They attempted to take a fourth Rembrandt, although they could not pry it from the frame.
· It isn’t known what order the rooms were robbed because they took the surveillance tape.
· Also, something that confuses investigators is the fact that the thieves didn’t seem to ransack the Titan Room showcases, where they could have stolen “The Rape of Europa”, which had been voted the cities most significant piece of artwork

What has happened since the heist?
· $5 million dollars has been offered by the Gardner Museum for the return of the paintings which average a total of $300 million in value.
· An anonymous letter writer said he could plan the return of the paintings in exchange for $2.6 million what was wanted was: full immunity from prosecution for the thieves, and the people who held the paintings. The letter was turned over to the FBI.
· Another letter was sent, the writer showing their interest in the museums thoughts about negotiation, although they didn’t like the way the law enforcements reacted. The writer said if a private exchange was impossible, then he would give the museum clues on the artworks whereabouts. After that, nothing was sent to the museum again.
· The frames of the missing paintings still hang on the walls today.