Stolen Pictures We May Never See Again
Hollywood has got it wrong – art theft is not driven by villainous aesthetes, it is a branch of organized crime in which masterpieces are used as collateral to finance drug deals. This was true of the historic 1990 heist at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. In that caper, the thieves stole 13 works of art, including a portrait by Manet, five sketches by Degas, the only known seascape by Rembrandt, and – perhaps most heartbreakingly – “The Concert” by Vermeer (pictured), one of only around 36 extant paintings by the 17th-century Dutch master. Today the Gardner haul is valued at more than $500 million. Earlier this year, the FBI announced that the case had been “solvedâ€, but none of the missing works has been recovered. As Alastair Sooke points out, the Vermeer, “which is often said to be worth up to $300 million, could be a kind of criminal gaming chip, with a felonious value of up to $30 million. It could then be used as collateral, helping to finance drug deals, gun-running, tobacco trafficking, and other illicit activities.”
