Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Art Theft: Rembrandt Couple

Summary: The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum theft March 18, 1990 claims an etching, two bronzes and 10 paintings, including a Rembrandt couple in black.

Stolen from Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum during the March 1990 art heist, Rembrandt van Rijn's "A Lady and Gentleman in Black" has a mysterious back story, with the x-ray revelation of the artist's painting over a child and a ball-chasing dog placed to the right of the black-robed lady: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The Rembrandt couple, A Lady and Gentleman in Black, avoids self-depictions in the artist's two other artworks of likewise unknown whereabouts since the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum art theft in Boston, Massachusetts.

The theft of one beaker, one finial, one Manet, one Vermeer, three Rembrandt artworks and five Degas brand it the United States' largest private art heist. Any suspects cannot be prosecuted since the statute of limitations in effect March 18, 1990, expanded to 20 years since 1994, concerns the five succeeding years. Security chief Anthony P. Amore describes as Museum reward eligibility requirements "information that leads directly to the recovery of all of our items in good condition."

The reward, enlarged from $1 million to $5 million since 1997, ensures informants anonymous payment through attorneys since "It's time for these paintings to come home."

The Rembrandt couple, the Rembrandt seascape and the Rembrandt self-portrait furnish different perspectives on Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn's (July 15, 1606-Oct. 4, 1669) output for 1633.

A Lady and Gentleman in Black generates dark, sparse impressions, the Rembrandt seascape gives bold, busy looks and the Rembrandt self-portrait goes for delicate, delightful touches. It holds second place, with a 51.81-inch (131.6-centimeter) height and a 42.94-inch (109-centimeter) width, after the Rembrandt seascape, for most conspicuous of the 13 missing artworks. Its empty frame is in its inventoried place on the second-floor Dutch Room wall, to the left of the equally empty placeholder for the Rembrandt seascape.

Historic overlaps at a different time in a different place join the two Rembrandt paintings' historic physical proximity before the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum art theft.

The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum keeps the provenance and the purchase records for its 2,500 existing art pieces and for the 13 artworks missing since 1990.

Museum records list the Rembrandt couple as purchased in September 1898 for 13,000 pounds and the Rembrandt seascape as purchased in November 1898 for 6,000 pounds. They mention the Rembrandt couple's and the Rembrandt seascape's arrivals Nov. 22 and 24, 1898 at Museum agent Fernand Robert's building, 30 Rue Joubert, Paris, France. They note their insured values at 325 and 150 French francs, after receipt from Colnaghi & Co. of London, England, and prefatory to shipping to Boston.

Nineteenth-century prices and values offer the reverse of what the Rembrandt couple and the Rembrandt seascape hypothetically obtain after the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum art theft.

Museum records preserve Mrs. Gardner's reaction to acquiring the Rembrandt seascape and art historian Bernard Berenson's (June 26, 1865-Oct. 6, 1959) to obtaining the Rembrandt couple.

The theft-related section on the Museum's website quotes Mrs. Gardner as writing Berenson that "Your description of the sea picture makes me fairly ache for it!" Berenson revels in two "quiet, refined people, lined in a dignified, distinguished way, and not scamped, and dashed off as so many of Rembrandt's pictures are." Theft perhaps separates the paintings, together since the Museum's opening Jan. 1, 1903, as sightings specify the Manet cafegoer, the Rembrandt seascape and the Vermeer concert.

The Rembrandt couple historically takes viewers into A Lady and Gentleman in Black's Dutch room, until the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum art theft turns everything topsy-turvy.

1894 oil on canvas portrait of "Isabella Stewart Gardner in Venice" by Swedish artist Anders Zorn (Feb. 18, 1860-Aug. 22, 1920): Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 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:

Stolen from Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum during the March 1990 art heist, Rembrandt van Rijn's "A Lady and Gentleman in Black" has a mysterious back story, with x-ray revelation of the artist's painting over a child and a ball-chasing dog placed to the right of the black-robed lady: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:A_lady_and_gentleman_in_black,_by_Rembrandt.jpg

Circa 1633 etching,"Self Portrait Wearing a Soft Cap: Full Face, Head Only," numbers among a trio of artworks by Dutch Golden Age painter Rembrandt van Rijn stolen in a single morning, March 18, 1990, from Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum: Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Rembrandt_-_Self_portrait_etching_-_ISGM.jpg

"Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee," only known seascape by Dutch Golden Age painter Rembrandt van Rijn, has shared dates of creation and of theft with two other Rembrandt artworks; about two months separate Isabella Stewart Gardener's purchases of "A Lady and Gentleman in Black" and of Rembrandt's only known seascape: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rembrandt_Christ_in_the_Storm_on_the_Lake_of_Galilee.jpg

1894 oil on canvas portrait of "Isabella Stewart Gardner in Venice" by Swedish artist Anders Zorn (Feb. 18, 1860-Aug. 22, 1920): Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Zorn,_Anders_-_Isabella_Stewart_Gardner_in_Venice_-_1894.jpg

For further information:

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Available @ http://www.vermeer-foundation.org/

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Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2017/01/isabella-stewart-gardner-museum-art_13.html

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Available @ https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2015/03/17/gardner-museum-art-heist-one-boston-most-enduring-mysteries-years-later/9U3tp1kJMa4Zn4uClI1cdM/story.html

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Available @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irBRWMMHOI8

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Available @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iHf8dmQYbg

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