Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Art Theft: Rembrandt Seascape

Summary: The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum art theft hides an etching, two bronzes and 10 paintings, including the only Rembrandt seascape, since March 18, 1990.

"Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee," only known seascape by Dutch Golden Age painter Rembrandt van Rijn, stolen March 18, 1990, from Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum's Dutch Room: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The only Rembrandt seascape, Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee, appears on lists of the 13 artworks missing since the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum art theft March 18, 1990.

Total length and total width bump the oil on canvas into the most conspicuous category of the museum's bustled-off etching, two art objects and 10 paintings. The size and the subject, the story of Jesus calming waves and winds, converge to call up the most credible post-theft sightings from Massachusetts to Pennsylvania. Tom Mashberg of the Boston Herald describes discerning Aug. 18, 1997 frayed edges and Rembrandt's signature on "arguably the most famous missing painting in the world."

Federal Bureau of Investigation Special Agent Geoffrey Kelly exposes its attempted sale in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 2003, according to a witness deemed credible by the FBI.

The Rembrandt seascape finds itself on a handwritten list of the artworks, with their black market value, in the course of FBI searches May 2, 2012.

Elene Guarente's testimony in 2010 regarding husband Robert F. Guarente's giving away, in Portland, Maine, in 2003, possibly stolen paintings generate FBI searches two years later. Searches of Guarente acquaintance Robert V. Gentile's ranch-style residence in Manchester, Connecticut, harvest from the basement the list tucked inside a Boston Herald from March 1990. Assistant U.S. Attorney John H. Durham indicating, for District Court in Hartford April 17, 2015, Gentile's attempted fences with undercover FBI inspires searches May 2, 2016.

Stealing Beauty by Tom Mashberg for Vanity Fair's March 1998 issue juggles different names while joining attempted recoveries of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum art theft.

sample of alizarin, organic compound comprising main ingredient in red lake pigments favored by Dutch Golden Age painter Johannes Vermeer; paint chips provided to Boston Herald reporter Tom Mashberg as alleged scrapings from Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum art heist, have been matched by leading conservator Hubert von Sonnenburg (1928-July 16, 2004) to Vermeer's expensive pigment palette: Ben (Benjah-bmm27), Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The Mashberg article keeps the viewing location of the Rembrandt seascape as an old warehouse across from a "decrepit low-rise housing project" in Brooklyn, New York.

The viewing leads in October 1997 to receipt of paint chips and 25 negatives from William P. Youngworth III, Boston antiques dealer arranging the warehouse visit. Electron and polarized-light microscopic testing by Walter C. McCrone of Chicago, Illinois, in 1997 makes them 350-year-old chips from where the Rembrandt seascape possibly was painted. Hubert von Sonnenburg's re-examinations, in 2003, at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, note exact matches with Johannes Vermeer's (Oct. 31, 1632-Dec. 15, 1675) red-lake pigment.

The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum art theft obtains, as its two most expensive artworks, one of 34 firmly attributed Vermeer paintings and the only Rembrandt seascape.

"The Concert," painted by Dutch Golden Age painter Johannes Vermeer, joins Dutch Golden Age painter Rembrandt van Rijn's "Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee" as the two most expensive artworks stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

New Testament synoptic gospel passages from Luke 8:22-25, Mark 4:35-41 and Matthew 8:23-27 prompt Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn's (July 15, 1606-Oct. 4, 1669) seascape of 1633.

Mashberg quotes Myles J. Connor Jr., samurai swords collector and Youngworth acquaintance: "Everyone loves the thought of owning a Rembrandt, if only for a little while." The 63- by 50.38-inch (160- by 128-centimeter) oil on canvas reveres autobiographical proclivities in the self-depicted, turquoise-clad disciple and Dutch Reformed Church emphases upon biblical knowledge. It supports Connor's observation if not him, his associates Bobby Donati and David Houghton, and Youngworth as Agent Kelly's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum art theft suspects.

Anthony P. Amore, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum security chief, theorizes that "Mrs. Gardner would have expected us to battle every day to get back her art."

An empty frame marks display place in the Dutch Room for Rembrandt's only seascape: Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

"Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee," only known seascape by Dutch Golden Age painter Rembrandt van Rijn, stolen Sunday, March 18, 1990, from Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum's Dutch Room: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rembrandt_Christ_in_the_Storm_on_the_Lake_of_Galilee.jpg

sample of alizarin, organic compound comprising main ingredient in red lake pigments favored by Dutch Golden Age painter Johannes Vermeer; paint chips provided to Boston Herald reporter Tom Mashberg as alleged scrapings from Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum art heist, have been matched by leading conservator Hubert von Sonnenburg (1928-July 16, 2004) to Vermeer's expensive pigment palette: Ben (Benjah-bmm27), Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Alizarin-sample.jpg

"The Concert," painted by Dutch Golden Age painter Johannes Vermeer, joins Dutch Golden Age painter Rembrandt van Rijn's "Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee" as the two most expensive artworks stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Vermeer_The_concert.JPG

An empty frame marks display place in the Dutch Room for Rembrandt's only seascape: Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Empty_Frames_at_Isabella_Stewart_Gardner_Museum.jpg

For further information:

Baker, Billy. 10 March 2015. "Gardener Keeps Gardner Museum's Atrium in Bloom." Boston Globe > Metro.
Available @ https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2015/03/09/gardener-keeps-gardner-atrium-bloom/bbSZctlMtkEDy9UDYWrO4K/story.html

Boston Landmarks Commission. Report on the Potential Designation of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum as a Landmark under Chapter 772 of the Acts of 1975, as Amended.
Available @ https://www.cityofboston.gov/images_documents/ISGM%20Study%20Report%20as%20Amended_tcm3-39717.pdf

"Collection." Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.
Available @ http://www.gardnermuseum.org/collection

FBI. 15 November 2005. "FBI Announces Top Ten Art Crimes." Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) > News > Stories > 2005 > November.
Available via FBI @ https://archives.fbi.gov/archives/news/stories/2005/november/topten_art111505

FBI. 8 March 2013. "Gardner Museum in Boston Offering $5 Million Reward for Stolen Art." YouTube.
Available @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DpD1HbcFfQ

FBI Boston Division. "Boston FBI Continues Hunt for Stolen Artwork." Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) > Boston Division > Press Releases > 2010.
Available via FBI @ https://archives.fbi.gov/archives/boston/press-releases/2010/bs031510.htm

FBI Boston Division. "FBI Provides New Information Regarding the 1990 Isabella Stewart Gardner Art Heist." Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) > Boston Division > Press Releases > 2013.
Available via FBI @ https://archives.fbi.gov/archives/boston/press-releases/2013/fbi-provides-new-information-regarding-the-1990-isabella-stewart-gardner-museum-art-heist

"The Gardner Museum Theft." Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) > FBI Top Ten Art Crimes.
Available @ https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/5-million-reward-offered-for-return-of-stolen-gardner-museum-artwork

"Johannes Vermeer: The Complete Works." Vermeer Foundation.
Available @ http://www.vermeer-foundation.org/

Marriner, Derdriu. 6 January 2017. "Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Art Theft: Rembrandt Self-Portrait." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2017/01/isabella-stewart-gardner-museum-art.html

Mashberg, Tom. March 1998. "Stealing Beauty." Vanity Fair > Culture.
Available @ http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/1998/03/biggest-art-heist-us-history

Mashberg, Tom. 26 February 2015. "Isabella Stewart Gardner Heist: 25 Years of Theories." New York Times > Arts > Art & Design.
Available @ http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/01/arts/design/isabella-stewart-gardner-heist-25-years-of-theories.html?_r=0

Murphy, Shelley. 17 March 2015. "Search for Artworks from Gardner Heist Continues 25 Years Later." Boston Globe > Metro.
Available @ https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2015/03/17/gardner-museum-art-heist-one-boston-most-enduring-mysteries-years-later/9U3tp1kJMa4Zn4uClI1cdM/story.html

"Reputed Mobster Arrested, Reportedly Tried to Fence Gardner Museum Art." The Boston Globe > Posted Apr 17, 2015 at 3:14 PM > Updated Apr 18, 2015 at 10:52 PM.
Available @ http://www.telegram.com/article/20150417/NEWS/304179654

"Thirteen Works: Explore the Gardner's Stolen Art." Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum > Resources > Theft.
Available @ http://www.gardnermuseum.org/resources/theft

Thomson, Jason. 3 May 2016. "Isabella Stewart Gardner Theft: Is the Massive Art Heist About to be Solved?" The Christian Science Monitor > USA > USA Update.
Available @ http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/USA-Update/2016/0503/Isabella-Stewart-Gardner-theft-Is-the-massive-art-heist-about-to-be-solved

WBUR. 12 March 2009. "Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Heist." YouTube.
Available @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irBRWMMHOI8

WBUR. 18 March 2010. "'The Storm on the Sea of Galilee' by Rembrandt Van Rijn.'" YouTube.
Available @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3t0JQ0f2AvQ

Williams, Paige. March 2010. "The Art of the Story." Boston Magazine > Gardner Museum > Gardner Museum Theft.
Available @ http://www.bostonmagazine.com/2010/03/gardner-heist/3/