Two men dressed as cops entered this Boston museum. 81 minutes later, they walked out with $500M of art.

The 81-Minute Heist That Stunned Boston

The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum lost $500 million in art during just 81 minutes on March 18, 1990. Two men in fake police gear got inside at 1:24 a.m.

After tying up the guards in the basement, they cut priceless works from frames and grabbed others by hand.

They took Rembrandt’s “Christ in the Storm,” Vermeer’s “The Concert,” and 11 more treasures before slipping away at 2:45 a.m.

Despite FBI leads pointing to mob ties, the case stays open. Today, empty frames still hang on the museum walls as quiet reminders of America’s biggest art theft.

The Museum Was Broke and Falling Apart Before the Heist

By the late 1980s, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum was running out of money.

The $3.6 million left by Gardner in 1924 was almost gone. The building had no climate control or insurance.

When security experts suggested upgrades in 1988, the board said no. They blamed money problems and Gardner’s will, which banned big changes.

Guards earned barely above minimum wage, and criminals knew about the weak security. The FBI even caught wind of a robbery plot in 1982, but the museum only made small fixes.

Two Fake Cops Showed Up After St. Patrick’s Day

Around 1:20 a.m. on March 18, 1990, two men dressed as Boston police officers walked up to the museum’s side door on Palace Road.

People celebrating St.Patrick’s Day saw these “cops” sitting in a hatchback near the museum about an hour earlier.

When they rang the buzzer, guard Rick Abath, 23, heard them say they needed to check out a problem.

Abath broke the rules by letting them in without calling his boss or real police. It was the first night shift for his partner Randy Hestand, just 25 years old.

The Guards Fell For A Simple Trick

The thieves stepped into the locked entry and walked up to Abath at the security desk. They asked if anyone else was in the building.

Abath called Hestand on the radio and noticed something odd: the taller guy had a fake-looking mustache.

The shorter thief told Abath, “You look familiar. We might have a warrant for your arrest. ” He ordered Abath to step away from the desk.

Abath moved away, leaving behind the only panic button. The thieves handcuffed both guards, taped their eyes and mouths, and tied them to pipes in the basement.

Nobody Knows What Happened For 24 Minutes

The thieves got inside at 1:24 a.m. and quickly tied up the guards. But the motion detectors showed no movement in any galleries until 1:48 a.m.

This 24-minute gap left cops puzzled. Security director Anthony Amore later pointed out this gap showed the thieves felt totally at ease inside the museum.

During this quiet time, the thieves told the tied-up guards they would get a reward “in about a year” if they kept quiet.

The crooks also took the security tapes that showed them coming in.

They Went Straight For The Dutch Room Masterpieces

At 1:48 a.m., the thieves walked up the main stairs to the second floor and entered the Dutch Room.

They smashed through glass and cut Rembrandt’s “Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee” and “A Lady and Gentleman in Black” right out of their frames at 1:54 a. m.

They took Vermeer’s “The Concert” and Govert Flinck’s “Landscape with an Obelisk” from their frames too.

The thieves grabbed a small Rembrandt self-portrait and an old Chinese bronze beaker.
Motion detectors caught both men working in the Dutch Room around 1:56 a.m.

The Thieves Spent Time In The Short Gallery

One thief left the Dutch Room at 1:51 a.m. and walked through the Early Italian and Raphael Rooms into the Short Gallery.

The second thief joined him there at 2:08 a.m., and they started taking screws out of a frame holding Napoleon’s flag.

They gave up trying to take the whole flag since it was screwed to the wall, and just took the bronze eagle from the top.

The pair also stole five Edgar Degas drawings from cabinets that Isabella Stewart Gardner had picked out herself.

Then came another mystery gap: the motion detectors showed no movement from 2:09 to 2:26 a.m.

Manet’s Painting Vanished From The Blue Room

The thieves went down to the first floor Blue Room and took Édouard Manet’s “Chez Tortoni,” the only artwork stolen from that level.

Oddly, they left Manet’s frame not in the room but on the security director’s chair.

The motion detectors in the Blue Room had only picked up guard Abath’s patrol movements before the thieves came in, which made police wonder if Abath helped with the crime.

The thieves spent 81 minutes total inside, much longer than typical art thefts that usually take about 10 minutes.

Morning Guards Found Their Colleagues Tied Up

The morning shift guards arrived at 8:15 a.m. on March 18 and found Abath and Hestand still tied up in the basement.

Police looked through the galleries and saw paintings cut from frames, leaving behind glass pieces and bits of canvas.

Thirteen works worth $200 million at the time were gone, including Rembrandt’s only seascape, Vermeer’s “The Concert,” and pieces by Degas and Manet.

Cops couldn’t figure out why the thieves took these works but left more valuable ones like Titian’s “The Rape of Europa.

Four Men Connected To The Heist Died Within 18 Months

The FBI first looked at guard Rick Abath as a possible inside man because art crimes usually need inside help. Security footage showed him opening the side door 20 minutes before the thieves showed up.

Within 18 months of the heist, four men linked to the crime turned up dead:

George Reissfelder from cocaine overdose in March 1991, Leonard DiMuzio shot dead in June 1991, James Marks murdered outside his home in February 1991, and Robert Donati stabbed to death in September 1991.

Reissfelder’s family told cops they saw a painting that looked like Manet’s “Chez Tortoni” in his apartment after the heist.

The FBI Solved an Age Old Heist Case in 2013

In March 2013, the FBI announced they knew who did it: members of a criminal gang from New England and mid-Atlantic states.

They said the artwork went to Connecticut and Philadelphia through mob connections around 2002, where people tried to sell the pieces.

By 2015, cops pointed to George Reissfelder, a small-time thief, and Leonard DiMuzio, who did home break-ins, as the main suspects.

Both men worked with mobster Carmello Merlino, looked like the police sketches, and died within a year of the heist.

Empty Frames Still Hang On Museum Walls Today

No arrests have happened, and none of the 13 stolen works have turned up in 35 years since that March night in 1990.

The museum offers a $10 million reward for information leading to the art’s safe return, the biggest bounty ever put up by a private institution, plus $100,000 just for the Napoleonic eagle finial.

Since 1994, empty frames hang on the museum walls as placeholders for the missing works and symbols of hope.

Vermeer’s “The Concert” ranks as the most valuable missing painting in the world, potentially worth $250 million, and one of only 34 known Vermeer paintings.

Guard Rick Abath, who died in 2024 at age 57, always said he was innocent, though people wondered about him until his death.

Visiting Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston

The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum at 25 Evans Way offers a unique look at America’s biggest art heist.

Adults pay $22 (advance timed tickets required), but you can visit free the first Thursday each month from 3-9pm.

Take the free audio tour “The Theft: An Immersive Audio Walk” to follow the thieves’ path through the museum. You’ll see empty frames where stolen masterworks once hung.

The $10 million reward still stands for their return.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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