Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Art Theft: Degas Jockeys

Summary: The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum art theft March 18, 1990, relocated elsewhere a beaker, a flag topper and 11 artworks, including two Degas jockeys.

"Three Mounted Jockeys," oil on brown paper; one of five artworks by Edgar Degas stolen during March 1990 Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum art theft: Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

One panel accepted two Degas dancers and another a horse-filled, woman-attended Degas funeral procession and two Degas jockeys until the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum art theft March 18, 1990, in Boston, Massachusetts.

Thieves in Boston uniforms, with crackling radios and without police weapons, blustered their way inside at 1:24 a.m. Eastern Standard Time (6:24 a.m. Coordinated Universal Time). The only robbery since the Museum's opening Jan. 1, 1903, concentrated upon works in oils by Flinck, Rembrandt and Vermeer and works on paper by Degas. It decreased Blue Room oils by one Manet, Dutch Room pieces by one Flinck, one Vermeer and three Rembrandts and Short Gallery works by five Degas.

The 81-minute, $500-plus million-valued extraction of 13 artworks exposed visitors to the Dutch Room's table without its beaker and the Short Gallery's flag without its top.

Yellow walls behind the seated subject of Portrait of Joséphine Gaujelin by Edgar Degas (July 19, 1834-Sept. 27, 1917) in 1867 fit the Yellow Room's colors.

Her black attire despite white sequins and her perfect but rigid posture give the Opéra ballerina and Théâtre du Gymnase (Gymnasium Theater) actress a funereal look. Attire, intensity, posture and profession in the 24.09- by 17.99-inch (61.2- by 45.7-centimeter) oil painting hint of the Short Gallery's Degas dancers and Degas funeral procession. A portrait rejected by its subject and exhibited against her will in the Paris Salon of 1869 and the United States is the Museum's only Degas.

The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum art theft jeopardized the second-floor Degas dancers, Degas funeral procession and Degas jockeys, but not the first-floor Degas oil on canvas.

Degas's portrait of actress and dancer Joséphine Gaujelin hangs safely in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum's Yellow Room: Ferdi Stam @FerdiStam, via Twitter Jan. 16, 2015

The Degas oil on canvas, as Museum accession number P1e4, keeps to its historical space since purchase in 1904 from Eugene Glaenzer and Co., New York.

The dancer surnamed Gozelin historically looked at gentlemen using the men's cloakroom and presently looks at visitors viewing the first Matisse to "enter an American museum." The Yellow Room maintains Henri-Émile-Benoît Matisse's (Dec. 31, 1869-Nov. 3, 1954) The Terrace, Saint-Tropez from 1904 and musical instruments from Spanish Cloister and Tapestry Room concerts. The Addition's opening Jan. 19, 2012, and the Museum's renovations nudged furnishings, 2,500 artworks and 20 rooms into looks, if not uses, from 86 years before.

Today's restored museum offers matches, for all but Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum art theft casualties, with 91-year-old photographs by Thomas E. Marr, 180 Tremont Street, Boston.

The Short Gallery perpetuates Yellow Room-like uses, preserved in photographs from 1926, as location of personal mementoes near the Tapestry Room, Spanish Cloister-like in hosting events.

Blank spaces from the missing Degas dancers, Degas funeral procession and Degas jockeys qualify, as a mismatch, the Short Gallery wall near its Tapestry Room entryway. They recall Three Mounted Jockeys (Jockey à cheval), 12- by 9.44-inch (30.5- by 24-centimeter) black ink, white, flesh and rose washes, oil pigments on brown paper. They suggest similar place-holding arrangements for the missing 4.12- by 6.31-inch (10.5- by 16-centimeter) watercolor and pencil on paper Leaving the Paddock (La sortie du pesage).

Blue Room, Dutch Room and Short Gallery collections tender somewhat incomplete-looking uses without two Degas jockeys and 11 other Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum art theft casualties.

Matisse's The Terrace safely remains in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum's Yellow Room: Steve @Towerbeach, via Twitter July 23, 2014

Acknowledgment

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

Image credits:

"Three Mounted Jockeys," oil on brown paper; one of five artworks by Edgar Degas stolen during March 1990 Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum art theft: Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Degas_Three_Mounted_Jockeys.jpg

Degas's portrait of actress and dancer Joséphine Gaujelin hangs safely in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum's Yellow Room: Ferdi Stam @FerdiStam, via Twitter Jan. 16, 2015, @ https://twitter.com/FerdiStam/status/556000202264686592

Matisse's The Terrace safely remains in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum's Yellow Room: Steve @Towerbeach via Twitter July 23, 2014, @ https://twitter.com/Towerbeach/status/491969432122822656

Self-styled historical realist painter Edgar Degas shared enthusiasm for art and horse racing with Édouard Manet (Jan. 23, 1832-April 30, 1883); a favorite locale for both artists to indulge in both enthusiasms was Longchamp Racecourse (Hippodrome de Longchamp) in Paris's Bois de Boulogne; "Inauguration des Courses au Bois de Boulogne" (Inauguration of Longchamp Racecourse in the Bois de Boulogne), Sunday, April 27, 1857, as illustrated by G. Guerinot and Clément-Auguste Andrieux for May 2, 1857, issue of Le Monde Illustré: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:No03p11_courses_boulogne-e03-.jpg;
via Fulgence Girard pages on Baptiste Marcel's website @ http://www.dunwich.org/fulgence.girard/no03p11_courses_boulogne.html

"Three Mounted Jockeys" is one of five Degas artworks stolen from Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum: "Program for an Artistic Soirée I" (upper left); "Program for an Artistic Soirée II" (lower left); "Cortège aux Environs de Florence" (upper right); "La Sortie du Pesage" (lower right): Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Public Domain, via FBI Art Crime Team @ https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/5-million-reward-offered-for-return-of-stolen-gardner-museum-artwork

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.
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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

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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

Ferdi Stam @FerdiStam. 16 January 2015. "Edgar Degas - Portrait of Joséphine Gaujelin (1867) Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston." Twitter.
Available @ https://twitter.com/FerdiStam/status/556000202264686592

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Available @ https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/5-million-reward-offered-for-return-of-stolen-gardner-museum-artwork

Girard, Fulgence. "Courses du Bois de Boulogne." Le Monde Illustré, no. 3 (May 2, 1857): 11.
Available @ http://www.dunwich.org/fulgence.girard/no03p11_courses_boulogne_gr.html

Hornbuckle, Adam R. "Degas at the Races." Journal of Sport History, vol. 25, no. 2 (1998): 317-20.
Available @ http://www.jstor.org/stable/43610564.

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

Marriner, Derdriu. 10 February 2017. “Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Art Theft: Bronze Chinese Beaker.” Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2017/02/isabella-stewart-gardner-museum-art_10.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 24 February 2017. “Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Art Theft: Degas Dancers.” Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2017/02/isabella-stewart-gardner-museum-art_24.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 3 March 2017. “Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Art Theft: Degas Funeral Procession.” Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2017/03/isabella-stewart-gardner-museum-art.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 3 February 2017. “Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Art Theft: Flinck Obelisk.” Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2017/02/isabella-stewart-gardner-museum-art.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 17 February 2017. “Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Art Theft: Napoleonic Flag Topper.” Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2017/02/isabella-stewart-gardner-museum-art_17.html

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

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

Steve @Towerbeach. 23 July 2014. "Matisse: The Terrace, Saint-Tropez, 1904." Twitter.
Available @ https://twitter.com/Towerbeach/status/491969432122822656

"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/