The Biggest Art Theft in American History
The biggest art theft in American history occurred at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston on March 18, 1990. The stolen paintings, including the one that hung in this frame, Rembrandt’s “Lady and Gentleman in Black,” remain unrecovered.
Rembrandt’s “Lady and Gentleman in Black”
“The Concert,” by Vermeer, which once hung in this frame, is another of the paintings stolen in the Isabella Stewart Gardner heist.
Vermeer’s “The Concert”
The theft of these paintings, Picasso’s “Portrait of Suzanne Bloch” and Candido Portinari’s “O Lavrador de Cafe,” in Brazil in December was said to be made to order. A Brazilian suspect arrested in the theft told the authorities that the paintings were to be delivered to a collector in Saudi Arabia.
Art thieves are something of an inscrutable lot. Robert Mang was an Austrian alarm-systems specialist with no criminal history when he was arrested in the theft of a sculpture by Benvenuto Cellini, valued at $60 million, from the Vienna Art History Museum. He kept the sculpture, “Saliera,” under his bed for two years before trying to ransom it.
Benvenuto Cellini’s “Saliera.”
Via N.Y.Times
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