Second Chácara do Céu Museum Art Theft Feb. 24, 2006: Picasso Dancers

Summary: Latin America has one less Picasso on public display because the artist's Dance painting is one of five second Chácara do Céu Museum art theft casualties.

Pablo Picasso's Dance (Portuguese: A Dança), 1956 oil on canvas stolen during Chácara do Céu Museum 2006 art theft: Federal Bureau of Investigation Art Crime Team, Public Domain, via FBI

The second Chácara do Céu Museum art theft Feb. 24, 2006, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, aligns with the worldwide trend in absconding with artworks by one famous artist over all others.

Julian Radcliffe of the Art Loss Register in London, United Kingdom, brings to 1,147 the total number of one artist's disputed, missing, stolen artworks by 2012. It comes down to the enduring, worldwide appeal of assemblages, ceramics, collages, drawings, paintings, prints and sculptures by Pablo Ruiz Picasso (Oct. 5, 1881-April 8, 1973). Picasso artworks draw such high prices and huge crowds that the Chácara Museum art crime perpetrators diverted not only a painting but also an illustrated book.

A book of 15 bull-depicted lithographs and a painting of four dancers in a hand-held, moving, open, sardana-like circle ended up as extractions with three other artworks.

Fifteen engravings fill Toros (Bulls) by Ricardo Eliécer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto (July 12, 1904-Sept. 23, 1973), Nobel Prize Winner for Literature under the pseudonym Pablo Neruda. The 1960-released, 16.75- by 21.5-inch (42.54- by 54.61-centimeter) limited edition from the publisher Au Vent d'Arles in Paris, France, gives Picasso's pochoir lithographs to Neruda's poetry.

Stephen Van Dyk and Carolyn Siegel of Smithsonian Institution Libraries herald pochoir stenciling as honing "crisp lines and brilliant colors" for freshly printed or wet-appearing images. Pochoir invokes George Barbier's (Oct. 16, 1882-March 16, 1932) artistry for such high-fashion journals as Gazette du Bon Ton and Jardin des Dames et des Modes. It jumped from its heyday of 1900 through 1939 to 1960 because of the customized, unique vividness that its expensive, labor- and time-intensive, slow process jostles.

Sporting with bulls knows ancient lineages from Crete's prehistoric bull-riders to Navarre's bull-runners near the borders between France and Spain, Portugal's non-homicidal bull-fighters and Spain's bull-killers. It lists among its celebrated, creative enthusiasts Georges Bizet (Oct. 25, 1838-June 3, 1875), whose opera laments Carmen's love for the bullfighter Escamillo over Corporal José. The artistic and literary careers of Picasso, native son of southern Spain's Andalucía region through whose arenas many bullfighters marched triumphantly, manageed bull- and bullfighter-themed periods. Collectors and critics noted similar popularity and profitability of Picasso's artistry in Toros (Bulls) in 1960 and in Toros y Toreros (Bulls and Bullfighters) of 1961.

The second Chácara do Céu Museum art theft obtained the contributions to Neruda, not the collaboration with Luis Miguel Domenguín (Nov. 9, 1926-May 8, 1996).

Predilections for violence pursue Picasso's purloined artworks since one purported proof of life pulled Picasso's Dance from Morro dos Prazeres (Mountain of Pleasures) camping pyre ashes. They queue among reminiscent qualities in quotes by informants of respectively actual and rumored harm to Van Gogh and to Caravaggio and Gardner art theft casualties. Stephen Kurkjian, Boston Globe reporter, Master Thieves author and Pulitzer Prize recipient, relegated rushes cunningly into, and brutally through, the Gardner to gang rivalry-related turf wars. Bargaining, collateral, collection, initiation, ransom, revenue and rivalry suggest similar motives for stealing Caravaggio and van Mieris masterpieces and Chácara, Gardner and Van Gogh Museum artworks.

Who took the 39.37- by 31.89-inch (100- by 81-centimeter) painting titled Dance from 1956, inventory number MCC406, during the second Chácara do Céu Museum art theft?

A suggested scenario for Pablo Picasso's Dance is destruction by fire at a campsite in Santa Teresa's Morro dos Prazeres favela (slum); view from tram of Santa Teresa's slum (right) and affluent (left) sectors; Saturday, May 8, 2010, 02:52: chensiyuan, CC BY SA 4.0 International, 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:

Pablo Picasso's Dance (Portuguese: A Dança), 1956 oil on canvas stolen during Chácara do Céu Museum 2006 art theft: Federal Bureau of Investigation Art Crime Team, Public Domain, via FBI @ https://www.fbi.gov/investigate/violent-crime/art-theft/fbi-top-ten-art-crimes/theft-museu-chacara-do-ceu-rio-de-janeiro

A suggested scenario for Pablo Picasso's Dance is destruction by fire at a campsite in Santa Teresa's Morro dos Prazeres favela (slum); view from tram of Santa Teresa's slum (right) and affluent (left) sectors; Saturday, May 8, 2010, 02:52: chensiyuan, CC BY SA 4.0 International, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1_rio_de_janeiro_slum_2010.JPG

For further information:

Agence France-Presse. 26 February 2006. "Brazil Art Heist Is Cloaked by Carnival." The New York Times > World > Americas.
Available @ http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/26/world/americas/brazil-art-heist-is-cloaked-by-carnival.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 26 May 2017. "Second Chácara do Céu Museum Art Theft Feb. 24, 2006: Monet Seascape." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2017/05/second-chacara-do-ceu-museum-art-theft.html

McMahon, Colin. 28 February 2006. "Gunmen Use Brazil's Carnival as Cover in $50 Million Art Heist." Chicago Tribune > News.
Available @ http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2006-02-28/news/0602280108_1_picasso-art-thieves-million-art-heist

Nikkhah, Roya; and Downie, Andrew. 26 February 2006. "Carnival Gang Grabs £30M Art Treasures from Rio Museum." The Telegraph > News > World News > South America.
Available @ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/southamerica/argentina/1511532/Carnival-gang-grabs-30m-art-treasures-from-Rio-museum.html

Siquara, Carlos Andrei. 5 February 2016. "No Rastro de Obras Perdidas." O Tempo > Magazine > Diversão > Livro.
Available @ http://www.otempo.com.br/divers%C3%A3o/magazine/no-rastro-de-obras-perdidas-1.1226775

Skidmore, Thomas E. 1999. Brazil: Five Centuries of Change in Latin America. Latin American Histories series. New York NY: Oxford University Press.

Tardáguila, Cristina. 2016. A Arte do Descaso. Rio de Janeiro Brazil: Editora Intrínseca.
Available @ https://www.amazon.com.br/Arte-do-Descaso-Cristina-Tard%C3%A1guila/dp/8580578965/ref=sr_1_1_twi_pap_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1452189811&sr=8-1&keywords=a+arte+do+descas

Van Dyk, Stephen H.; and Siegel, Carolyn. "Vibrant Visions: Pochoir Prints in the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum Library." Smithsonian Institution Libraries.
Available @ http://www.sil.si.edu/ondisplay/pochoir/intro.htm

Gardner Museum Art Theft Unsolved on Chácara Museum Theft Anniversary

Summary: The second Gardner Museum art theft and Chácara Museum art robbery are America's major unsolved art crimes on the first Chácara Museum theft anniversary.

Chácara do Céu Museum (left) and Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (right) are sites of major unsolved art thefts in the Americas:
photograph of Museu da Chácara do Céu, taken 13 days before Friday, Feb. 24, 2006, art theft: Ministério da Cultura do Brasil, CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Wikimedia Commons;
1903 photograph of Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, viewed from the Fens, by T.E. Marr and Son Photography: gardnermuseum, via Instagram Feb. 24, 2016

The second Chácara do Céu and Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum art thefts still are unsolved 28 years after the first Chácara do Céu robbery May 3, 1989, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

The Boston crime March 18, 1990, and the Rio Feb. 24, 2006, belong on the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) list of top 10 unsolved mysteries. The Gardner museum robbery in 1970 and Chácara Museum theft in 1989 can be considered closed through culling stolen artworks the year of each crime's commission. Ulrich Boser in The Gardner Heist: The True Story of the World's Largest Unsolved Art Theft described a dealer delivering the Rembrandt stolen by the "underworld."

Newspaper coverage in Brazil explained the first Chácara Museum art crime as an armed intervention from which arrest of suspects and return of artworks quickly ensued.

First art thefts at Chácara do Céu Museum in 1989 and at Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in 1970 foreshadow the second art thefts in 2006 and 1990, respectively, with same removals of Salvador Dalí's "Two Balconies" and Henri Matisse's "Luxembourg Gardens" (left) from Chácara do Céu and a self portrait by Rembrandt van Rijn (right) from Isabella Stewart Gardner:
Henri Matisse's Luxembourg Garden (Portuguese: Jardim de Luxemburgo): Federal Bureau of Investigation Art Crime Team, Public Domain, via FBI;
Rembrandt van Rijn's "Self Portrait Wearing a Soft Cap: Full Face, Head Only": Federal Bureau of Investigation Art Crime Team, Public Domain, via FBI

The first robberies foreshadowed the second by fingering the same Rembrandt self-portrait in 1970 and 1990 and the same Dalí and Matisse in 1989 and 2006.

Armed intervention before closing times guided both Chácara Museum robberies and grab-and-go during operating hours while smash-and-grab after-hours galvanized the first and second Gardner Museum thefts. Reconstruction of 28-year-old events has six armed robbers heading through museum gardens and herding staff and visitors together in the three-floored museum late in the afternoon. Both Chácara Museum art thefts involved a ruse, with the first implying policemen in search of fugitive thieves and the second invoking costumed merrymakers during Carnival.

The first Chácara do Céu Museum art theft jammed far more artworks into one getaway vehicle than the second's four oil paintings and one illustrated book.

The second Chácara do Céu Museum art theft, occurring Friday, Feb. 24, 2006, included removal of Toros, a 1960 book about bulls, but not of Toros y Toreros, a 1961 book about bulls, bullfighters and bullfighting, both illustrated by Pablo Picasso; a drawing from Toros y Toreros: vintagedeluxeshop, via Instagram March 8, 2017

Newspaper articles and online sources keep different itemizations and totals concerning the number and the type of artworks purloined from, and returned to, the Chácara Museum.

Contemporary and subsequent accounts list as stolen one tapestry, two Chinese Tang Dynasty terracotta statues, eight, nine or 11 paintings and 27 or 29 silver pieces. They mention artworks by São Paulo-born Brazilian artist Cândido Portinari (Dec. 29, 1903-Feb. 6, 1962) and Italian-born Brazilian painter Eliseo Visconti (July 3, 1866-Oct. 15, 1944). They note among the casualties Luxembourg Garden by Henri Matisse (Dec. 31, 1869-Nov. 3, 1954) and Two Balconies by Salvador Dalí (May 11, 1904-Jan. 23, 1989).

The first Chácara do Céu Museum art theft, like the second, obtained the only artwork by the Marqués de Dalí de Púbol in South American museums.

Prior to the 2006 art theft of Salvador Dalí's "Two Balconies" (Portuguese: Os Dois Balcões), Chácara do Céu Museum qualified as the only South American museum with artwork by the Marqués de Dalí de Púbol: Federal Bureau of Investigation Art Crime Team, Public Domain, via FBI

Contemporary and subsequent sources present time frames of 14 to 20 days after the 1989 theft as the timespan for retrieving masterpieces and rounding up suspects. They uniformly quote six as the total armed robbers in the first and the second Chácara Museum art thefts and five for the total suspects arrested. They reveal an anonymous tip as the information source for rounding up artworks and suspects in an apartment in the Praia de Botafogo suburb of Rio. Cristina Tardáguila, author of A Arte do Descaso (The Art of Neglect), suggests solving the second by studying the first Chácara do Céu Museum art theft.

The 28th Chácara Museum robbery anniversary transmits hope for America's greatest unsolved art crimes, the second Isabella Stewart Gardner and Chácara do Céu Museum art thefts.

Cristina Tardáguila at the launch of her Chácara do Céu Museum art thefts-themed book, A Arte do Descaso (The Art of Neglect), with Brazilian documentary film producer João Moreira Salles; Livraria da Travessa -- Shopping Leblon, southern Rio de Janeiro, southeastern Brazil; Thursday, Feb. 18, 2016; Gustavo Schlittler Rodrigues, photographer: sr2fotografia, via Instagram Feb. 18, 2016

Acknowledgment

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

Image credits:

Rio de Janeiro's Chácara do Céu Museum (left) and Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (right) are sites of major unsolved art thefts in the Americas:
Friday, Feb. 11, 2006, photograph of Museu da Chácara do Céu: Ministério da Cultura do Brasil, CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Museu_da_Chácara_do_Céu_01.jpg
1903 photograph of Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, viewed from the Fens, by T.E. Marr and Son Photography: gardnermuseum, via Instagram Feb. 24, 2016, @ https://www.instagram.com/p/BCLgHKQvHAM/

First art thefts at Chácara do Céu Museum in 1989 and at Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in 1970 foreshadow the second art thefts in 2006 and 1990, respectively, with same removals of Salvador Dalí's "Two Balconies" and Henri Matisse's "Luxembourg Gardens" (left) from Chácara do Céu and a self portrait by Rembrandt van Rijn (right) from Isabella Stewart Gardner
Henri Matisse's Luxembourg Garden (Portuguese: Jardim de Luxemburgo): Federal Bureau of Investigation Art Crime Team, Public Domain, via FBI @ https://www.fbi.gov/investigate/violent-crime/art-theft/fbi-top-ten-art-crimes/theft-museu-chacara-do-ceu-rio-de-janeiro
"Self Portrait Wearing a Soft Cap: Full Face, Head Only": Federal Bureau of Investigation Art Crime Team, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Rembrandt_-_Self_portrait_etching_-_ISGM.jpg

The second Chácara do Céu Museum art theft, occurring Friday, Feb. 24, 2006, included removal of Toros, a 1960 book about bulls, but not of Toros y Toreros, a 1961 book about bulls, bullfighters and bullfighting, both illustrated by Pablo Picasso; a drawing from Toros y Toreros: vintagedeluxeshop, via Instagram March 8, 2017, @ https://www.instagram.com/p/BRZO2RIjzyt/

Prior to the 2006 art theft of Salvador Dalí's "Two Balconies" (Portuguese: Os Dois Balcões), Chácara do Céu Museum qualified as the only South American museum with artwork by the Marqués de Dalí de Púbol: Federal Bureau of Investigation Art Crime Team, Public Domain, via FBI @ https://www.fbi.gov/investigate/violent-crime/art-theft/fbi-top-ten-art-crimes/theft-museu-chacara-do-ceu-rio-de-janeiro

Cristina Tardáguila at the launch of her Chácara do Céu Museum art thefts-themed book, A Arte do Descaso (The Art of Neglect), with Brazilian documentary film producer João Moreira Salles; Livraria da Travessa -- Shopping Leblon, southern Rio de Janeiro, southeastern Brazil; Thursday, Feb. 18, 2016; Gustavo Schlittler Rodrigues, photographer: sr2fotografia, via Instagram Feb. 18, 2016, @ https://www.instagram.com/p/BB7YK6uprEb

For further information:

Marriner, Derdriu. 31 March 2017. "Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Art Theft: Dead-Ends to the Gardner 13." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2017/03/isabella-stewart-gardner-museum-art_31.html

Siquara, Carlos Andrei. 5 February 2016. "No Rastro de Obras Perdidas." O Tempo > Magazine > Diversão > Livro.
Available @ https://www.amazon.com.br/Arte-do-Descaso-Cristina-Tard%C3%A1guila/dp/8580578965/ref=sr_1_1_twi_pap_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1452189811&sr=8-1&keywords=a+arte+do+descaso

Skidmore, Thomas E. 1999. Brazil: Five Centuries of Change in Latin America. Latin American Histories series. New York NY: Oxford University Press.

Tardáguila, Cristina. 2016. A Arte do Descaso. Rio de Janeiro Brazil: Editora Intrínseca.

Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Art Theft: Kurkjian on Plea Bargaining

Summary: Master Thieves by Stephen Kurkjian introduces a South Boston runaway who ideated the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum art theft for plea bargaining.

Stephen Kurkjian, author of Master Thieves; Cambridge, Massachusetts; Thursday, March 9, 2017, 21:36: Արարատ Թրվանց, CC BY SA 4.0 International, via Wikimedia Commons

The dreams of a runaway teenager anticipated the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum art theft March 18, 1990, according to Master Thieves: The Boston Gangsters Who Pulled Off the World's Greatest Art Heist.

Stephen Kurkjian, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist at the Boston Globe, broaches Louis Royce as possible ideator of the art crime in the Fenway neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. A junior high school student's field trip, a teenage runaway's sleepover and a theft-planner's predilection for art construct the profile of potential ideator, not actual perpetrator. Negotiability of stolen masterpieces, not appreciation of Raphael (Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, March 28 or April 6, 1483-April 6, 1520), drove perpetrators nine years after ideation.

Suspected master ideator Royce expects a percentage whenever exile ends for the missing Gardner 13 artworks, all of which "should be back with the museum now."

13 artworks removed from Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum during March 18, 1990 art theft: Public Domain, via FBI Art Crime Team

The museum's comfortable warmth fueled the eighth-grader's fascination during a field trip from Patrick Gavin Junior High School in South Boston, one of Boston's poorest neighborhoods. The third-floor Long Gallery's crimson tapestry-covered table for Matteo Civitali's (May 5, 1436-Oct. 12, 1501) Virgin Adoring the Child painted terracotta gave him a canopy bed. The museum's antiques, masterpieces and security heralded the South Boston native's first art theft, of 11 paintings and prints, during a jewelry-related break-in Feb. 21, 1981. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Middlesex County Superior Court records indicate recovery of the $50,000-valued artworks and of the $50,000-plus-valued jewelry stolen in Newton, Massachusetts.

The negotiability of stolen art for immunity or reward jumpstarts the return of the Newton, and hopefully of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, art theft casualties.

Louis Royce's field trip as an eighth grader at South Boston's Patrick F. Gavin School inspired a subsequently fascinating sleepover at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum; exterior shot of Patrick F. Gavin School by Herbert E. Glasier & Company, Dorchester Street, South Boston, Massachusetts: City of Boston Archives, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

FBI records keep track of two recovery raids for the Marc Chagall (July 7, 1887-March 28, 1985) and Salvador Dalí (May 11, 1904-Jan. 23, 1989) artworks. They list August 1981 as the first recovery raid near William F. Callahan Jr. (June 12, 1891-April 20, 1989) Tunnel between downtown Boston and Logan Airport. They mention recovery of one Chagall lithograph, two Dalí lithographs and three Dalí paintings during Royce's meeting with Edward F. Clark, FBI Special Agent undercover 1964-1995. They note subsequent recovery, during a raid of a North Shore motel, in July 1982 of the five remaining missing artworks from the Newton residential break-in.

Royce's offer "If you drop the charges against Ralph [Rossetti], I'll tell you where you can find the rest of the score" obtained his boss's immunity.

First recovery raid of artworks stolen from Feb. 21, 1981, Newton, Massachusetts, residential break-in took place August 1981 near Boston Harbor's Callahan Tunnel; Lieutenant William F. Callahan Jr. Tunnel, Saturday, Dec. 6, 2014, 14:48: Tony Webster from San Francisco, California, CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Wikimedia Commons

"Under the norms of the criminal life," facilitators and ideators pluck 15 percent from a theft's profits, "depending on the tipster's clout with the actual thieves."

William Butchka, FBI Special Agent undercover in Boston, queues up with FBI Special Agent Clark regarding Royce's proficiency as a master ideator and a master thief. He reveals, "[Royce] was clever, and he'd study a job for however long it took to figure out the best way of pulling it off successfully."

Royce suggests, "Maybe they were taken to get someone out of jail, but that obviously hasn't happened. So they're just laying somewhere now, unseen and unappreciated."

Rivals terminally thwarted Robert Donati's (June 4, 1940-Sept. 21, 1991) trading, Royce-style, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum art theft casualties for boss Vincent Ferrara's 22-year prison sentence.

aftermath of Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum art theft March 18, 1990: Watertown Library @WatertownPubLib, via Twitter July 14, 2015

Acknowledgment

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

Image credits:

Stephen Kurkjian, author of Master Thieves; Cambridge, Massachusetts; Thursday, March 9, 2017, 21:36: Արարատ Թրվանց, CC BY SA 4.0 International, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Stephen_A._Kurkjian.jpg

13 artworks removed from Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum during March 18, 1990 art theft: Public Domain, via FBI Art Crime Team @ https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/5-million-reward-offered-for-return-of-stolen-gardner-museum-artwork

Louis Royce's field trip as an eighth grader at South Boston's Patrick F. Gavin School inspired a subsequently fascinating sleepover at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum; exterior shot of Patrick F. Gavin School by Herbert E. Glasier & Company, Dorchester Street, South Boston, Massachusetts: City of Boston Archives, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Patrick_F._Gavin_School_-_403002065_-_City_of_Boston_Archives.jpg

First recovery raid of artworks stolen from Feb. 21, 1981, Newton, Massachusetts, residential break-in took place August 1981 near Boston Harbor's Callahan Tunnel; Lieutenant William F. Callahan Jr. Tunnel, Saturday, Dec. 6, 2014, 14:48: Tony Webster from San Francisco, California, CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lieutenant_William_F._Callahan_Tunnel,_Boston_(22084667302).jpg

aftermath of Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum art theft March 18, 1990: Watertown Library @WatertownPubLib, via Twitter July 14, 2015, @ https://twitter.com/WatertownPubLib/status/621106041523163136

For further information:

Broderick, Ericka. 1 December 2016. "Stephen Kurkjian: Gardner Museum Theft Started As 'Get Out of Jail Free' Scam." InDepthNewHampshire > Courts and Corrections.
Available @ http://www.timesunion.com/tuplus-opinion/article/A-final-attempt-to-recover-stolen-art-7223006.php

Connelly, Sherryl. 15 February 2015. "Possible Leads in $500 Million Boston Museum Robbery 25 Years Later: Book." New York Daily News > Crime.
Available @ http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/leads-500m-boston-museum-robbery-1990-article-1.2115903

Kurkjian, Stephen. 13 March 2005. "Secrets Behind the Largest Art Theft in History." Boston Globe > Globe Special Report > The Gardner Heist.
Available @ http://archive.boston.com/news/specials/gardner_heist/heist/

Kurkjian, Stephen. 2015. Master Thieves: The Boston Gangsters Who Pulled Off the World's Greatest Art Heist. New York NY: PublicAffairs.

Kurkjian, Stephen. 1 April 2016. "A Final Attempt to Recover Stolen Art." TimesUnion > TU Plus > Opinion.
Available @ http://www.timesunion.com/tuplus-opinion/article/A-final-attempt-to-recover-stolen-art-7223006.php

"The 'Master Thieves' Behind Boston's Greatest Cold Case." WBUR > Radio Boston > 12 March 2015 > Stephen Kurkjian.
Available @ http://www.wbur.org/radioboston/2015/03/12/stephen-kurkjian

Murphy, Shelley; and Kurkjian, Stephen. 18 March 2017. Six Theories Behind the Stolen Gardner Museum Paintings. Boston Globe > Metro.
Available @ https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2017/03/18/six-theories-behind-stolen-gardner-museum-paintings/JmwHou86qo5MtBzX1fb9cI/story.html

Watertown Library @WatertownPubLib. "Cunning in the way that they got into the museum, but brutal in dealing with the paintings. @kurkjian" Twitter. July 14, 2015.
Available @ https://twitter.com/WatertownPubLib/status/621106041523163136

Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Art Theft: Mashberg and Massachusetts

Summary: Reporter Tom Mashberg gives the how, who and why of a beaker, a finial and three Rembrandts among 13 Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum theft casualties.

"Seeking information" poster, with restated $5 million reward, issued March 18, 2013, by the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) depicts Rembrandt's 1633 oil on canvas seascape, The Storm on the Sea of Galilee; Boston Herald reporter Tom Mashberg was shown the painting during a visit Monday, Aug. 18, 1997, organized by antiques dealer William P. Youngworth III to an abandoned warehouse in an undisclosed location 40 minutes north of Boston in August 1997 (Tom Mashberg, "We’ve Seen It!," The Boston Herald, Nov. 17, 2018): Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Hideaways in New England for 13 casualties of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum art theft March 18, 1990, agree with research by journalist Tom Mashberg, co-author with Anthony Amore of Stealing Rembrandts.

Newspaper articles by the Boston Globe reporter based one beaker, one etching, one finial, five drawings and five paintings in Massachusetts or near the commonwealth's borders. They considered control over the stolen Gardner 13 connected to associates of rock musician Myles J. Connor Jr. and of antiques dealer William P. Youngworth III. They did not describe the same controllers and perpetrators in 1997 that, through details from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), they deemed suspects in 2015.

Non-corroborating information and unfulfilled promises explain two different sets of dead and surviving suspected perpetrators and controllers elaborated in 1997 and 1998 and expressed in 2015.

The Boston Herald journalist furnished as suspected perpetrators Robert Donati (June 4, 1940-Sept. 21, 1991) and David Houghton (April 8, 1939-March 29, 1992) by summer 1997.

He gave as his information source the revelations of Myles P. Connor Jr. during conversations with prison cellmate Edward B. "Rocco" Ellis during the early 1990s. He had as motives helping Connor's early release by removing and returning the Gardner 13 "Just like you did with the (stolen) Rembrandt" April 14, 1975. Eleven years off a 15-year art-stealing and bail-jumping sentence inspired Connor's grabbing Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn's (July 15, 1606-Oct. 4, 1669) portrait of Elizabeth van Rijn.

Similar motives join the 13 Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum art theft casualties, including three Rembrandts, and the Massachusetts Museum of Fine Arts theft of one Rembrandt.

Rembrandt's 1632 portrait of Elizabeth van Rijn, entitled "Portrait of a Girl Wearing a Gold-Trimmed Cloak," removed Monday, April 14, 1975, by Myles Connor Jr. from the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and now in a New Yorker's private collection: Public Domain, via The Athenaeum

Expert reactions to sighting one of the Gardner 13 Aug. 8, 1997, and testing paint chips in Oct. 1997, kindled the investigative journalist's re-examination of suspects.

The FBI labeled a two-minute sighting Aug. 18, 1997, as The New York Times reporter viewing a copy of The Storm on the Sea of Galilee. Museum conservator Barbara Mangum mentioned, "It would have been very difficult to roll up that painting because of the wax. It made that painting very stiff." FBI-arranged testing of paint chips, from Youngworth to broker artwork returns and "release from prison of my friend Myles Connor," noted no match with Rembrandt's seascape.

Release from prison in 2005 occurred without the promised overlapping return of 11 (minus beaker and finial) of 13 Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum art theft casualties.

A 350-pound (158.76-kilogram) weight provoking coronary artery disease and an age 20 years beyond police composites proved respectively problematic for Houghton and Reissfelder as suspected perpetrators.

Information from 1997 queued Leonard DiMuzio (July 6, 1947-June 11, 1991) and George Reissfelder (Feb. 22, 1940-Apr. 11, 1991) into FBI databases and recent Mashberg articles. It referred to Carmello Merlino (June 21, 1934-Dec. 7, 2005), Robert Gentile, Robert Guarente (Dec. 29, 1939-Jan. 25, 2004) and Robert Luisi Jr. as suspected controllers. Mashberg and Wittman considerations suggested respective reasons for stealing the beaker and Rembrandts because of Connor's artistic preferences and the finial because of Corsica's Napoleonic connections.

Ascertaining why some, why not other, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum art theft casualties ultimately takes a back seat to what return date triumphs amid ever-changing dead-ends.

On Wednesday, March 5, 2014, in a scene for "Rock n Roll Outlaw: The Ballad of Myles Connor," a 2016 television documentary directed and produced by filmmaker Bruce Macomber, Myles J. Connor Jr., art thief, son of Milton, Massachusetts, police sergeant, author of The Art of the Heist (2009) and self-credited mastermind of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum thefts, visits the cell in the Hancock County Jail, Ellsworth, Maine, from which he escaped Monday, July 26, 1965, by threatening a guard with a fake firearm fashioned from a shoe polish-blackened bar of soap, as described by coastal Maine journalist Bill Trotter; "Infamous art thief revisits criminal past in Ellsworth," Bangor Daily News, March 6, 2014: BDN Hancock County News, via Facebook March 5, 2014

Acknowledgment

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

Image credits:

"Seeking information" poster, with restated $5 million reward, issued March 18, 2013, by the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) depicts Rembrandt's 1633 oil on canvas seascape, The Storm on the Sea of Galilee; Boston Herald reporter Tom Mashberg was shown the painting during a visit Monday, Aug. 18, 1997, organized by antiques dealer William P. Youngworth III to an abandoned warehouse in an undisclosed location 40 minutes north of Boston in August 1997 (Tom Mashberg, "We’ve Seen It!," The Boston Herald, Nov. 17, 2018): Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons;
Tom Mashberg, "We've Seen It! Informant shows reporter apparent stolen masterpiece", The Boston Herald, Things to Do, Nov. 17, 2018, via The Boston Herald @ https://www.bostonherald.com/2008/03/16/weve-seen-it-informant-shows-reporter-apparent-stolen-masterpiece/

Rembrandt's 1632 portrait of Elizabeth van Rijn, entitled "Portrait of a Girl Wearing a Gold-Trimmed Cloak," removed Monday, April 14, 1975, by Myles Connor Jr. from the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and now in a New Yorker's private collection: Public Domain, via The Athenaeum @ http://www.the-athenaeum.org/art/detail.php?ID=149888

On Wednesday, March 5, 2014, in a scene for "Rock n Roll Outlaw: The Ballad of Myles Connor," a 2016 television documentary directed and produced by filmmaker Bruce Macomber, Myles J. Connor Jr., art thief, son of Milton, Massachusetts, police sergeant, author of The Art of the Heist (2009) and self-credited mastermind of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum thefts, visits the cell in the Hancock County Jail, Ellsworth, Maine, from which he escaped Monday, July 26, 1965, by threatening a guard with a fake firearm fashioned from a shoe polish-blackened bar of soap, as described by coastal Maine journalist Bill Trotter; "Infamous art thief revisits criminal past in Ellsworth," Bangor Daily News, March 6, 2014: BDN Hancock County News, via Facebook March 5, 2014, @ https://www.facebook.com/bdnmainehancock/posts/656525564395412/; via Facebook March 5, 2014, @ https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=656525564395412&set=a.155949744452999; via Facebook March 5, 2014, @ https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=656525564395412&id=155943191120321&set=a.155949744452999; Bangor Daily News @ https://www.bangordailynews.com/2014/03/06/news/infamous-art-thief-revisits-criminal-past-in-ellsworth/

three Rembrandts stolen during Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum 1990 art theft ~ The Storm on the Sea of Galilee (left), A Lady and Gentleman in Black (center) and Self Portrait Wearing a Soft Cap (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:

Amore, Anthony M.; and Tom Mashberg. 2011. Stealing Rembrandts: The Untold Stories of Notorious Art Heists. New York NY: Palgrave Macmillan division of St. Martin's Press LLC.

Burnstein, Scott M. "Mafia Art-Heist Mystery - Part 1." Gangster Report.
Available @ http://gangsterreport.com/mafia-art-heist-mystery-part-1/

Burnstein, Scott M. "Mafia Art-Heist Mystery - Part 2." Gangster Report.
Available @ http://gangsterreport.com/mafia-art-heist-mystery-part-2/

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." The New York Times > Art & Design.
Available @ https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/01/arts/design/isabella-stewart-gardner-heist-25-years-of-theories.html?_r=0

Sabba, Charles. 14 February 2014. "Art Crime Portraits: Gardner Gossips Lecture 2014." Gardner Heist Gossips blog.
Available @ http://gardnerheistgossips.blogspot.com/

WGBH News. "Gardner Museum Security Director On 25-Year-Long Art Heist." YouTube. March 18, 2015.
Available @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkNj0825jIQ

Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Art Theft: Dead-ends to the Gardner 13

Summary: The Gardner Heist by Ulrich Boser has four suspects from many dead-ends in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum art theft March 18, 1990, in Massachusetts.

sketch of two suspects, disguised as police officers, who gained entry into Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum for purposes of art theft, Sunday, March 18, 1990: Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Public Domain, via FBI Art Crime Team

Ulrich Boser assembles the known information sources and the leading suspect lists, as of 2009, for the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum art theft March 18, 1990, in one book, The Gardner Heist.

The author of The True Story of the World's Largest Unsolved Art Theft benefits from knowing one of the world's best independent fine arts claims adjusters. The book's 13 chapters correlate the 13 missing artworks with leads and observations from art sleuth Harold Smith's (Feb. 7, 1926-Feb. 19, 2005) surviving case files. They describe two suspected perpetrators but do not designate the present possessors or whereabouts of one beaker, one etching, one finial, five drawings and five paintings. The $500 million-estimated, zero-insured art theft in the Fenway neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, exasperates all investigators with its abundant, dead-end leads and its non-existent physical evidence.

Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum 1990 art theft's two suspects disguised as police officers: Stilled Lives, CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikispaces

The author finds comfortable fits for two composite sketches by Boston Police Department artist Neville of one heavier, mustached, younger suspect and one leaner, mustached older. Boser gives George Albert Reissfelder Jr. (Feb. 22, 1940-April 11, 1991) as likeliest suspect for the 5-foot-7- to 5-foot-10-inch- (1.70- to 1.78-meter-) tall, gold rim-bespectacled perpetrator. He has David Allen Turner as likeliest for the other almond-eyed, policeman-disguised, 6-foot- to 6-foot-1-inch- (1.83- to 1.85-meter-) tall, 180- to 200-pound (81.65- to 90.72-kilogram) perpetrator.

The sketches, whose Turner likeness a passerby indicated, incorporated observations by third-shift security guards Ray Abell, with inconclusive polygraph tests, and Ralph Helman, with non-incriminating results. The sketch and a Turner photograph joggled Jerry Stratberg's memories of two policemen in a gray hatchback just before the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum art theft.

The Gardner Heist's author Ulrich Boser refers to Richard Edward Abath (May 24, 1966-Feb. 23, 2024) under the pseudonym of Ray Abell, as explained in "The Investigation" on Kerry Joyce's Gardner Museum Heist Blog; photograph by Matthew Cavanaugh for The Boston Globe: The Boston Globe, via Facebook Aug. 6, 2015

No investigator definitively knows the perpetrators' identities since crime-scene inventories keep 12 unmatched fingerprints as the only physical evidence from the basement, entry and second-floor levels. Motion detector records on hard drives and sequenced fallen frames link theft times in the Dutch Room, Short Gallery and security director Lyle W. Grindle's office. Absent fingerprints, altered appearances, non-existent deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), stolen footage and stressed eyewitnesses mandate recovery of the missing Gardner 13 through confessions, searches, tails and tips.

Boser, reporter turned senior fellow at the Center for American Progress in Washington, D.C., notes damages to artworks and dangers to controllers, informants, investigators and suspects.

Conservator Gianfranco Pocobene observed that cutting, dropping, handling the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum art theft paintings obtained irreversible harm from which "you'll always see that damage."

thirteen artworks removed from Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum during Sunday, March 18, 1990 art theft: Public Domain, via FBI Art Crime Team

Boser, Open Case founding editor, presents among dead suspected informants Robert Donati (June 4, 1940-Sept. 21, 1991?) and Charles O. Pappas (Oct. 26, 1968-Nov. 22, 1995). Robert Guarente (Dec. 29, 1939-Jan. 25, 2004) and Carmello Merlino (June 21, 1934-Dec. 4, 2005) qualify as dead suspected controllers of Connecticut-, Maine-, Massachusetts-, Pennsylvania-circulated artworks. Boser, U.S. News & World Report former contributing editor, reveals, "no one had ever come forward about the lost masterpieces - they had all been murdered." Only Myles Connor Jr., Robert Gentile, David Turner and William Youngworth III survive as possible information sources since the author scuttled Irish and Whitey Bulger involvements.

Like Harold Smith, London insurance adjuster Mark Dalrymple tends toward amnesty and reward as recovery incentives since "these things are nicked for money. They're long-term players."

The Gardner Heist's author Ulrich Boser is a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress (CAP), headquartered in Washington DC; Wednesday, Jan. 19, 2011, 12:11:13: Center for American Progress, CC BY ND 2.0 Generic, via Flickr

Acknowledgment

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

Image credits:

sketch of two suspects, disguised as police officers, who gained entry into Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum for purposes of art theft, Sunday, March 18, 1990: 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

Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum 1990 art theft's two suspects disguised as police officers: Stilled Lives, CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikispaces @ http://stilledlives.wikispaces.com/suspects

The Gardner Heist's author Ulrich Boser refers to Richard Edward Abath (May 24, 1966-Feb. 23, 2024) under the pseudonym of Ray Abell, as explained in "The Investigation" on Kerry Joyce's Gardner Museum Heist Blog; photograph by Matthew Cavanaugh for The Boston Globe: The Boston Globe, via Facebook Aug. 6, 2015, @ https://www.facebook.com/globe/posts/just-who-is-richard-abath-why-do-many-believe-he-played-a-role-in-the-isabella-s/10153576820853258/; Kerry Joyce, "The Investigation," via Gardner Museum Heist Blog @ http://gardnerheist.com/investigation.html

thirteen artworks removed from Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum during Sunday, March 18, 1990 art theft: Public Domain, via FBI Art Crime Team @ https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/5-million-reward-offered-for-return-of-stolen-gardner-museum-artwork

The Gardner Heist's author Ulrich Boser is a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress (CAP), headquartered in Washington DC; Wednesday, Jan. 19, 2011, 12:11:13: Center for American Progress, CC BY ND 2.0 Generic, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/americanprogress/5370951490/

For further information:

Boser, Ulrich. 2009. The Gardner Heist: The True Story of the World's Largest Unsolved Art Theft. New York NY: HarperCollins.

"The Gardner Heist." Ulrich Boser.com > Books.
Available @ http://ulrichboser.com/books/gardner-heist/

Sabba, Charles. 14 February 2014. "Art Crimes Portraits: Gardners Gossips Lecture 2013. Gardner Heist Gossips Blogspot.
Available @ http://gardnerheistgossips.blogspot.com/

Wendy Siefken @WendyandCharles. "ReadersGazette: RT zedign: #Book: The Gardner Heist: The True Story Of The World’S Largest Unsolved Art Theft." Twitter. April 5, 2016.
Available @ https://twitter.com/WendyandCharles/status/717489284274630657

Van Gogh Museum Theft Return by Gardner Museum Art Theft Anniversary

Summary: The Van Gogh Museum theft return to Amsterdam, The Netherlands, occurs around the 27th Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum art theft anniversary.

13 artworks removed from Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum during Sunday, March 18, 1990 art theft: Public Domain, via FBI Art Crime Team

The date March 18, 2017, acknowledges the 27th anniversary of the unsolved Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum art theft and public viewings of the Van Gogh Museum theft return three days later.

The museum's theme "Ze zijn weer thuis!" ("They are home again!") brings closure to a 14-year loss in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and hope to Boston, Massachusetts. The Dutch police and their Italian counterparts claimed respective contributions to catching the two perpetrators in 2003 and to coordinating the two masterpieces' recovery in 2016. Recovery of the two oils of a Nuenen church and of a stormy Scheveningen derived from the conviction of two perpetrators and the cooperation of one.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation entered both museum thefts on the FBI list of top 10 art crimes without effectuating arrests, convictions or sentences in Boston.

The two art thefts, in Boston's Fenway neighborhood March 18, 1990, and in Amsterdam's Museumplein (Museum Square) Dec. 7, 2002, furnished two different means and outcomes.

Motion detection systems and security guard reports gave an 81-minute interval from walk-in as two policemen to walk-out as two perpetrators of a Boston museum theft. Burglar alarms, perpetrator confessions and security cameras had an interval of 3 minutes and 40 seconds from a roof break-in to a window break-out in Amsterdam. The FBI-released composite imparted the results of face-to-face interactions of two dark-haired, light-skinned, mustached male perpetrators in their late 20s or 30s with two Boston guards.

Eyewitnesses possibly joined on-site evidence in jacketing, and judging guilty, perpetrators long before the Van Gogh Museum theft return by the Gardner Museum art theft anniversary.

Gangsters Inc. @GangstersIncWeb, via Twitter Sep. 30, 2016

Commandeered surveillance footage, disabled burglar alarms and non-existent physical evidence keep investigators of the Gardner Museum art theft from knowing for sure the perpetrators' undisguised looks.

A discarded escape rope, an abandoned entry ladder, deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) evidence and a dropped hat led Dutch police to two separate arrests in December 2003. Newspaper articles from 2002 and a perpetrator's confession for a 2017-released documentary respectively mentioned possible input from security cameras and a responding policeman making eye contact.

Different means netted different outcomes for two sets of two perpetrators near in age and possibly also in motives nurtured by the Mafia's need for art. The Van Gogh Museum theft return by the 27th Gardner Museum art theft anniversary occurred because of continental investigations into art-loving members of the Italian Mafia.

The first-floor Blue Room and the second-floor Dutch Room and Short Gallery preserve evidence of the theft in empty frames and places for 13 missing artworks.

Conscious reminder of 13 wayward artworks qualifies as another outcome different from the Van Gogh Museum's relocation of main exhibition hall paintings into the opened-up spaces. The Congregation Leaving the Reformed Church in Nuenen and View of the Sea at Scheveningen reclaim their place among their creator's preserved drawings, letters and paintings. Their recovery from the Castellammare di Stabia home of Mafia member Raffaele Imperiale's parents near Naples Sept. 25, 2016, suggests hope for the Gardner Museum 13.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation tends toward similarly Mafia-involved, tucked-away locations for the Gardner Museum 13 on the 27th anniversary of the Gardner Museum art theft.

Two Vincent van Gogh paintings stolen in 2002 from Amsterdam's Van Gogh Museum were retrieved over 1,500 kilometers (932 miles) to the south in Castellammare di Stabia, a seaside resort in southwestern Italy; aerial view of Castellammare di Stabia, Gulf of Naples and Vesuvius; June 2005: Idéfix, CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, 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:

13 artworks removed from Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum during Sunday, March 18, 1990 art theft: Public Domain, via FBI Art Crime Team @ https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/5-million-reward-offered-for-return-of-stolen-gardner-museum-artwork

"Meet Raffaele Imperiale, the Camorra drug boss behind the stolen Van Gogh paintings worth $100 million.": Gangsters Inc. @GangstersIncWeb, via Twitter Sep. 30, 2016, @ https://twitter.com/GangstersIncWeb/status/781901611706777600

aerial view of Castellammare di Stabia, Gulf of Naples and Vesuvius; June 2005: Idéfix, CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Castellamaredistabbia0001.jpg

For further information:

Associated Press and Sarah Dean for MailOnline. 30 September 2016. "Two Van Gogh Paintings Stolen in a Daring Raid from a Dutch Museum in 2002 Are FOUND Wrapped in a Cloth in a Safe After Tip-off from a Mafia Suspect Led Italian Police to Hideout." Daily Mail > News > World News > Arts.
Available @ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3815383/2-Van-Gogh-paintings-recovered-Italian-anti-Mafia-police.html

Gangsters Inc. @GangstersIncWeb. 30 September 2016. "Meet Raffaele Imperiale, the Camorra drug boss behind  the stolen Van Gogh paintings worth $100 million." Twitter.
Available @ https://twitter.com/GangstersIncWeb/status/781901611706777600

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. 10 March 2017. “Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Art Theft: Degas Jockeys.” Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2017/03/isabella-stewart-gardner-museum-art_10.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 March 2017. "Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Art Theft: Manet Cafegoer." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2017/03/isabella-stewart-gardner-museum-art_17.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

McKenna, Josephine. 30 September 2016. "Van Gogh Masterpieces Stolen from Amsterdam in Daring Heist 14 Years Ago Turn up in Italian Mafia's Country Mansion." The Telegraph > News.
Available @ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/09/30/van-gogh-paintings-discovered-in-italy-14-years-after-they-were/

Reuters. 8 December 2002. "Two van Gogh Works Are Stolen in Amsterdam." The New York Times > World.
Available @ http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/08/world/two-van-gogh-works-are-stolen-in-amsterdam.html

"Two Jailed over Van Gogh Thefts." British Broadcasting Corporation > BBC News > Entertainment > Arts & Culture > 22 July 2004.
Available @ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/3928943.stm

"Two Stolen Van Gogh Paintings Back on Display in Amsterdam." Euronews > Netherlands > 22 March 2017.
Available @ http://www.euronews.com/2017/03/22/two-stolen-van-gogh-paintings-back-on-display-in-amsterdam

Van Gogh Museum. 8 February 2017. "Van Gogh Returns - Director Axel Rüger." YouTube.
Available @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlz6QK5pgug

Van Gogh Museum @vangoghmuseum. 21 March 2017. "Read the #VanGoghReturns press release: 'Home at last: after 14 years the stolen Van Goghs are back in the museum.'" Twitter.
Available @ https://twitter.com/vangoghmuseum/status/844140717769441280

Wochit News. 21 March 2017. "After 14 Years, Stolen Van Gogh Paintings Returned To Amsterdam Museum." YouTube.
Available @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Azb9H_92CFQ