Today marks the largest art theft in US history

March 18, On This Day

Unsolved to this day!

It remains till date the biggest art heist in US history. Early in the morning of March 18, 1990, two thieves disguised as police officers robbed the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston of 13 artworks worth some $500 million. These included some of the most valuable paintings in the world: Johannes Vermeer’s “The Concert,” Rembrandt’s “Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee” and Degas’ “Leaving the Paddock.” Empty frames hang in the Dutch Room gallery as placeholders for the missing works. The selection of stolen works puzzled experts, as more valuable artworks were present.

The museum initially offered a reward of $5 million for information leading to recovery of the art, doubled in May 2017 to $10 million and extended in 2018. But, till date, the works have not been recovered. This infamous art heist is also getting some new attention now as a docuseries on Netflix in April 2021.