To be sure, on March 18, 1990, the Boston Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum experienced a truly incredible crime. Instead, it became the scene of the largest art heist in modern history. Thieves posing as police officers pulled off an incredible caper. In the process, they managed to steal 13 works of art, worth an estimated $500 million. More than three decades later, this infamous incident continues to captivate the public. Yet even today it is still cloaked in questions that remain unanswered and an investigation that is ongoing.
On the day of the heist, Toma and another man entered the museum. They used the ruse of being law enforcement officers answering a report of a domestic disturbance. So they hatched a master plan to get into the museum. For more than an hour and 20 minutes, they respectively and abundantly contacted national art treasures. Their haul included masterpieces such as Rembrandt van Rijn’s “Storm on the Sea of Galilee” and Johannes Vermeer’s “The Concert.”
Jack Roland Murphy was later identified as one of the burglars. For these crimes, he would go on to receive the moniker “Murph the Surf” due to his surfing pursuits and involvement in these publicized jewel heists. Next to Murphy were his cohorts, who were lookouts during the robbery. Authorities quickly arrested everyone who took part. So the pair’s pleas landed them three-year prison sentences for their roles in this most audacious of crimes.
While these arrests are noteworthy, none have resulted in any recovery of those stolen artworks from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Unfortunately, this leaves both law enforcement officials and art lovers themselves in a confusing limbo. Immediately FBI agents and other investigators conduct the inquiries. As of yet, they have not identified any leads that would allow them to recover these invaluable pieces.
“We will recover the works and the perpetrators will be brought to justice. Everything is being done, everywhere, to achieve this, under the leadership of the Paris public prosecutor’s office,” – [source not specified]
The Isabella Stewart Gardner heist has inspired a cultural trove. Perhaps the most famous example is the 1975 film Murph the Surf, which campily but vividly dramatizes the events surrounding this truly awful crime. The heist harkens back to other notorious art thefts that once dominated the headlines. Think of Pål Enger’s audacious theft of Edvard Munch’s “The Scream” from Norway’s National Gallery in 1994 or Vincenzo Peruggia’s infamous heist of the Mona Lisa from the Louvre in 1911.
This occurrence speaks to a much larger problem about security of art institutions around the world. French President Emmanuel Macron emphasized that art theft represents “an attack on a heritage that we cherish because it is our history.” France’s Minister of Culture, Rachida Dati stated the difficulty of protecting large historic monuments such as the Louvre. She focused on the systemic issues that cultural institutions still must grapple with.
The mysterious and still-unsolved Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum heist continues to public’s imagination ensnare. At the same time, it emphasizes the pressing need for art security and preservation. Experts are still combing through evidence and chasing down leads in the hopes of one day recovering the missing works.
