Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Art Theft: Vermeer Concert

Summary: The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum art theft gets an etching, two bronzes and 10 paintings, including the Vermeer Concert, as of March 18, 1990.

"The Concert," oil on canvas painted by Dutch Golden Age painter Johannes Vermeer, depicts a trio of musicians; inserted into sedate musical scene is copy of Dutch Golden Age painter Dirck van Baburen's raucous "The Procuress" (upper right, above singer); "The Concert" numbers among 11 paintings stolen from Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Sunday, March 18, 1990: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The Vermeer Concert quickly ascends to the top 10 places on lists, including those by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), since the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum art theft in Boston, Massachusetts.

The Concert belongs in first place, at almost equivalent to the combined values of one etching, two bronzes and nine paintings missing since March 18, 1990. It counts among 34 paintings firmly attributed, not among those questionably attributed, to Delft-born painter Johannes Vermeer (Oct. 31, 1632-Dec. 15, 1675) of the Dutch Republic. It dates back to about 1665 and, like the similarly ferreted Rembrandt couple, draws viewers into a Dutch room that dwells within the second-floor Dutch Room.

The Concert epitomizes the four-story, 115-year-old, 2,500-piece Museum as Mrs. John Lowell Gardner's (April 14, 1840-July 17, 1924) first major auction purchase abroad Dec. 5, 1892.

An empty frame atop a table mount faces similarly empty wall-hanging frames and finds itself back-to-back with another empty frame, from thieves feigning Boston police employment.

The Vermeer Concert, a 28.56-inch- (72.5-centimeter-) high, 25.5-inch- (64.7-centimeter-) wide oil on canvas, gets an estimated value of $200-plus million out of a total $500-plus million. Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum provenance and purchase records have Mrs. Gardner, outside the Hotel Drouot sales room in Paris, France, handkerchief movement-coded messaging agent Fernand Robert. They indicate a purchase price of 31,175 French francs at the estate auction of art critic Étienne-Joseph-Théophile Thoré (called Théophile Thoré-Bürger, June 23, 1807-April 30, 1869).

The Vermeer Concert historically juggles, before the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum art theft, a real painting within a Dutch room within the Dutch Room's Vermeer painting.

"The Procuress," 1622 oil on canvas by Dutch Golden Age painter Dirck van Baburen; Johannes Vermeer painted the example of the vrolijk gezelschap ("merry company") style of Dutch genre painting into two of his artworks, "The Concert" (ca. 1664) and "Lady Seated at a Virginal" (ca. 1670-1672); Museum of Fine Arts, Boston: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Massachusetts' Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) keeps among its collection The Procuress of 1622 by Wijk bij Duurstede-born Dutch painter Dirck van Baburen (1595?-Feb. 21, 1624).

The Procuress looks out from the wall behind the trio in the Vermeer Concert just as the real painting presently looks out from the MFA's walls. The oil on canvas manipulates victimless interactions among one man and two women and measures 40 inches (101.6 centimeters) high by 42.4 inches (107.6 centimeters) wide. The Procuress nudges a landscape painting that nestles a windswept tree just above the heads of the man and the two women in the Vermeer Concert.

Provenance and purchase records offer among The Procuress' previous owners the mother-in-law of its copyist in Vermeer's Concert, an Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum art theft casualty.

The oil on canvas owned by Maria Thins (1593?-Dec. 27, 1680), mother of Catharina Bolnes (1631?-Dec. 30, 1687), Vermeer's wife, peers at viewers of another Vermeer.

Vermeer queues up a canalscape on the painted underside of the instrument's top lid and The Procuress on the wall behind Lady Seated at a Virginal. The 20.3-inch- (51.5-centimeter-) high, 17.9-inch (45.5-centimeter-) wide canvas, regarded a firmly attributed Vermeer of 1670 to 1675, receives visitors to the National Gallery in London, England. Comparative viewing of the Baburen painting with its copy within a Vermeer artwork nowadays suggests a half-day flight to London, not a five-minute walk in Boston.

A renovated museum and a 70,000-square-foot (6,503.21-square-meter) addition teem with increased patronage while placeholders toll 2017 in without the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum art theft casualties.

"A Lady Seated at a Virginal," one of two paintings into which Dutch Golden Age painter Johannes Vermeer painted Dutch Golden Age painter Dirck van Baburen's "The Procuress"; with the theft of "The Concert," only Vermeer's "Lady Seated at a Virginal" remains to exemplify Vermeer's reproduction of "The Procuress"; National Gallery, London: 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:

"The Concert," painted by Dutch Golden Age painter Johannes Vermeer, depicts a trio of musicians; the oil on canvas painting numbers among 11 paintings stolen from Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Sunday, March 18, 1990: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Vermeer_The_concert.JPG

"The Procuress," 1622 oil on canvas by Dutch Golden Age painter Dirck van Baburen; Johannes Vermeer painted the example of the vrolijk gezelschap ("merry company") style of Dutch genre painting into two his artworks; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dirck_van_Baburen_-_The_Procuress_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg

"A Lady Seated at a Virginal," one of two paintings into which Dutch Golden Age painter Johannes Vermeer Johannes painted Dutch Golden Age painter Dirck van Baburen's "The Procuress" in two of his paintings; with the theft of "The Concert," only Vermeer's "Lady Seated at a Virginal" remains to exemplify Vermeer's reproduction of "The Procuress"; National Gallery, London: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lady_Seated_at_a_Virginal,_Vermeer,_The_National_Gallery,_London.jpg

For further information:

"18 U.S. Code 668 - Theft of Major Artwork." Cornell University Law School > Legal Information Institute > U.S. Code > Title 18 > Part I > chapter 31 > 668.
Available @ https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/668?quicktabs_8=1#quicktabs-8

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. 20 January 2017. "Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Art Theft: Rembrandt Couple." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2017/01/isabella-stewart-gardner-museum-art_20.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 13 January 2017. "Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Art Theft: Rembrandt Seascape." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2017/01/isabella-stewart-gardner-museum-art_13.html

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. 17 March 2010. "'The Concert' by Johannes Vermeer." YouTube.
Available @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrPqiGIJYYs

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

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/