The Gardner heist : a true story of the world's largest unsolved art theft
Boser, Ulrich2009
Books, Manuscripts
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Shortly after midnight on March 18, 1990, two men broke into the Isabella Steward Gardner Museum in Boston and committed the largest art heist in history. They stole a dozen masterpieces, including one Vermeer, three Rembrandts, and five Degas. But after thousands of leads, hundreds of interviews, and a $5-million reward, not a single painting has been recovered. Worth a total of $500 million, the missing masterpieces have become the Holy Grail of the art would and one of the nation's most extraordinary unsolved mysteries." "Art detective Harold Smith worked on the theft for years, and after his death, reporter Ulrich Boser inherited his case files. Traveling deep into the art underworld, Boser explores Smith's unfinished leads and comes across a remarkable cast of characters, including the brilliant rock 'n' roll art thief; the golden-boy gangster who professes his innocence in rhyming verse; the deadly mobster James "Whitey" Bulger; and the Boston heiress Isabella Stewart Gardner, who stipulated in her will that nothing should ever be changed in her museum, a provision followed so closely that the empty frames of the stolen works still hang on the walls. Boser eventually cracks one of the biggest mysteries of the case and uncovers the identities of the men who robbed the museum nearly two decades ago. A tale of art and greed, of obsession and loss, The Gardner Heist is as compelling as the stolen masterpieces themselves.
Main title:
Author:
Imprint:
New York : Smithsonian Books/HarperCollins, 2009
Collation:
260 pages : colour illustrations ; 24 cm.
Contents:
The storm on the sea of Galilee: a disturbance in the courtyard - Chez Tortoni: the art detective - A lady and gentlemen in black: it was a passion - The concert: the picture habit - Cortege aux environs de Florence: the art of the theft - Landscape with an obelisk: something that big - Ku: unfinished business - Three mounted jockeys: infiltrate and infatuate - Self-portrait: I was the one - Program for an artistic soiree I: any news on your side - Program for an artistic soiree II: where's Whitey? - La sortie de pesage: put my picture on the cover - Finial: like a spiderweb
ISBN:
9780061451836 (hardback)
Dewey class:
364.1628 GAR
Local class:
364.1628
Language:
English
Subject:
BRN:
50033
More Information:
| Location | Collection | Call number | Status/Desc |
|---|---|---|---|
| Penrith | Nonfiction | 364.1628 GAR | Available |