Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Art Theft: Flinck Obelisk

Summary: The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum art theft exiles one etching, two bronzes and 10 paintings, including the Flinck obelisk, from home March 18, 1990.

"Landscape With an Obelisk," 1638 oil on panel by Dutch Golden Age painter Govert Teuniszoon Flinck (Jan. 25, 1615-Feb. 2, 1660), removed from Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum during March 1990 art theft: The Yorck Project, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

A Dutch 17th-century landscape accepts an Egyptian obelisk as insightfully as an early 20th-century museum affords a 21st-century addition 22 years after the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum art theft in Boston, Massachusetts.

The Flinck obelisk historically became part of the Museum collection through misidentifications that brought it into the second-floor Dutch Room 87 years before March 18, 1990. Misattribution as a Rembrandt carried the oil on panel to a tabletop mount where proper attribution confirmed its continued placement back-to-back with Johannes Vermeer's The Concert. Post-theft sightings describe the Manet cafegoer, the Rembrandt seascape and the Vermeer concert and divulge nothing regarding the missing etching, two bronzes and seven other paintings.

The 81-minute, $500-plus million-valued museum robbery exiles one 167-year-old finial (flag topper), one 3,090-plus-year-old beaker and works by two 19th-century French and three 17th-century Dutch painters.

Govert Teuniszoon Flinck (Jan. 25, 1615-Feb. 2, 1660) fit his obelisk, a stone structure with a pyramidal top and a quadrangular base, into a Dutch countryside.

The 27.94-inch- (71-centimeter-) high, 21.44-inch- (54.5-centimeter-) wide Landscape with an Obelisk from 1638 historically gets ringside views onto the gabled, glass skylight-enclosed, summer nasturtium-draped inner courtyard. Museum provenance and purchase records have the £4,500 purchase from the George Rath collection in Budapest, Hungary through Colnaghi & Co., art dealers in London, England. They indicate the English dealers intermediating acquisition through payment in 1900 from Mrs. Gardner's art historian, Bernard Berenson (June 26, 1865-Oct. 6, 1959), on-site in Europe.

Perhaps the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum art theft perpetrators join Berenson's judging the Flinck obelisk "a work of art of exquisite, sweet pathos and profound feeling."

Mrs. John Lowell Gardner's (April 14, 1840-July 17, 1924) will keeps up the entire Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum possessions and premises with a $1 million endowment.

The endowment leaves 30 centuries of decorations and furnishings, in their exact places at Mrs. Gardner's death, for "the education and enjoyment of the public forever." Museum inventories mention among artworks busts, choir books, columns, friezes, letters, manuscripts, paintings, photos, scrolls and tiles in the courtyard and throughout three floors of furnishings. They note among furnishings that simultaneously nudge artwork status andirons, bureaus, candlesticks, chairs, chalices, coffers, glass, lace, mantelpieces, pennants, plates, scepters, sofas, swords, tapestries and textiles.

Off-street windows offer, since the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum art theft, two empty frames tabletop views of marble benches, statues and tiles in the courtyard below.

Italian architect Renzo Piano pulled the reverse of the Flinck obelisk by putting the Museum's glass and steel Addition next to the 15th-century-styled, 19th-century-built, 20th-century-opened Museum.

The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum quit a vulnerable past with almost all but the endowed collection queuing into the Addition's community-oriented spaces since Jan. 19, 2012. The Museum's simultaneous renovation with the Addition's realization results in the entire property's climate-controlled, theft-insured coverage by covert, low-light, night-vision, pan, tilt and zoom security systems. Police photographs from 27 years ago show only physical evidence of broken frames and glass because of simple video surveillance tapes easily stolen by the thieves.

Heightened, updated security tells the Flinck obelisk and the 12 other Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum art theft casualties that it is safe to come back home.

"Self-Portrait," ca. 1640 oil on panel by Dutch Golden Age painter Govert Flinck, Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow, South West Scotland: 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:

"Landscape With an Obelisk," 1638 oil on panel by Dutch Golden Age painter Govert Teuniszoon Flinck (Jan. 25, 1615-Feb. 2, 1660), removed from Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum during March 1990 art theft: The Yorck Project, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rembrandt_Harmensz._van_Rijn_076.jpg

"Self-Portrait," ca. 1640 oil on panel by Dutch Golden Age painter Govert Flinck, Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow, South West Scotland: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Govaert_Flinck_Self_Portrait.jpg

Flinck's landscaped obelisk was displayed in the second-floor Dutch Room, described by the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum's website as a place for special occasion entertainment by Mrs. Gardner, offering "a stunning view into the courtyard": view of inner courtyard, June 29, 2015: Nic McPhee (Unhindered by Talent), CC BY SA 2.0, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/nicmcphee/18660473624/

original Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, a 19th-century building with 15th-century styling, as viewed from 20th century addition by Italian architect Renzo Piano; glassed-in passageway (lower center) connects the addition to the original: Robert Gray (AtHandGuides.com), CC BY 2.0, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/55063261@N06/6917282500/

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

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

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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

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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

Marriner, Derdriu. 27 January 2017. "Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Art Theft: Vermeer Concert." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2017/01/isabella-stewart-gardner-museum-art_27.html

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

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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

U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Massachusetts. "Gardner Museum Surveillance Excerpt." YouTube. Aug. 6, 2015.
Available @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSw1BsJEBB4

Vila, Bob. 31 October 2011. "Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum." YouTube.
Available @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBOGMbOoZPA

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/