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Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Heist

Published September 21, 2026Updated September 21, 2026
Mar 18, 1990

Two men posing as police steal 13 works

Between 1:24 and 2:45 a.m., two men posing as Boston police gained entry, isolated and restrained the guards, and looted the Dutch Room, Short Gallery and Blue Room. Motion records, the guards' accounts and the condition of the galleries provide a detailed but incomplete reconstruction of their 81 minutes inside.

View sequence of events
  1. 01:20
    Two men wearing police-style uniforms parked near the Palace Road employee entrance and rang the night bell, saying they were responding to a disturbance.
  2. 01:24
    Rick Abath admitted the men through the locked vestibule, contrary to museum protocol, after viewing them on the exterior security camera.
  3. 01:25
    One man drew Abath away from the security desk—and its only direct police panic button—by claiming there might be a warrant for his arrest. Abath radioed Randy Hestand back from patrol.
  4. 01:30
    The intruders handcuffed both guards, disclosed that this was a robbery, covered their eyes and heads with duct tape, and took them separately to the basement.
  5. 01:35
    With the guards secured to a pipe and workbench, the thieves controlled the building. They had subdued the staff in roughly fifteen minutes without triggering a police response.
  6. 01:48
    Motion-detector records first placed the thieves in the second-floor Dutch Room. They smashed a proximity alarm and removed major Dutch works, crudely cutting two Rembrandt canvases from their stretchers.
  7. 01:48–02:00
    From the Dutch Room they took Vermeer's The Concert; Rembrandt's Storm on the Sea of Galilee, A Lady and Gentleman in Black, and small self-portrait etching; Flinck's Landscape with an Obelisk; and an ancient Chinese gu. A larger Rembrandt self-portrait was moved but abandoned.
  8. 01:51 onward
    One thief entered the Short Gallery while the other remained in the Dutch Room. They attempted to dismantle a framed Napoleonic flag, then took its eagle finial and five small Degas works on paper.
  9. Before 02:40
    The thieves removed Manet's Chez Tortoni from the first-floor Blue Room. The motion system recorded no intruder there, making the exact timing and path of this removal an enduring evidentiary anomaly.
  10. Before 02:40
    They revisited the guards, then removed the exterior-camera videotapes and motion-system printouts from the security office. The motion data also remained stored on a hard drive, preserving much of their route.
  11. 02:40
    The employee entrance opened for the first removal trip. Investigators believe the art and other material were carried to the waiting vehicle in more than one load.
  12. 02:45
    The side door opened a final time and the thieves departed. They had spent 81 minutes inside and left both guards restrained in the basement.
Mar 18, 1990

Morning staff discover the robbery and police free the guards

The arriving day shift could not obtain entry or contact the night guards. The security director entered with keys, found the watch desk unattended and called police. Officers searched the building and found Abath and Hestand still restrained in separate basement locations at about 8:15 a.m.

Mar 21, 1990

Museum announces a $1 million recovery reward

Within three days, with assistance from major auction houses, the museum offered $1 million for information leading to the safe return of the missing works. The offer established recovery—not prosecution—as the institution's continuing priority.

Jul 1, 1990

FBI publishes a national recovery notice

The FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin circulated descriptions and images of the 13 missing objects under Boston file number 87A-BS-527120, formalizing the national and international search.

Jan 1, 1994

The empty frames become permanent reminders

The museum returned the empty Dutch Room and Blue Room frames to display. They remain both evidence of the altered installations and placeholders expressing the museum's intention to restore the works if recovered.

Jan 1, 1994

An anonymous correspondent proposes returning the art

A writer claiming access to the works sought money, immunity and controlled negotiations. Communications ended without proof sufficient to authenticate possession, the sender was never identified, and no work was returned.

Jan 1, 1997

The Youngworth–Connor lead produces disputed paint evidence

Tom Mashberg was taken to a darkened location and shown what was represented as Rembrandt's stolen seascape. Later paint samples were old but did not match that Rembrandt; negotiations over immunity and Myles Connor's release collapsed without an authenticated recovery.

Jan 1, 1997

Recovery reward increases to $5 million

The museum increased its standing reward to $5 million as the investigation pursued organized-crime and purported-recovery leads. The higher offer did not produce a verified return.

Jan 1, 2012

Federal searches focus on Robert Gentile

Searches connected to Gentile recovered information of investigative interest, including a handwritten list of the works and values, but no missing art. Further searches and questioning likewise failed to establish a verified custody chain.

Mar 18, 2013

FBI says it has identified the thieves

The FBI announced that investigators had identified the thieves with a high degree of confidence and believed the art had moved through organized-crime networks in New England and the mid-Atlantic. It withheld the alleged thieves' names and emphasized that locating the works remained the goal.

Aug 6, 2015

FBI releases security footage from the preceding night

The footage showed Abath admitting an unauthorized visitor through the employee entrance on March 17. Public speculation followed, but later review identified the visitor as unrelated to the robbery; it is not footage of either thief.

May 1, 2017

Museum doubles the principal reward to $10 million

The museum raised the reward for information leading directly to the return of all 13 works in good condition to $10 million. The offer was later made permanent; a separate $100,000 reward applies to the eagle finial.