FBI says suspects in 1990 art heist are dead

25 years ago, $500 million worth of paintings, including works from Degas, Vermeer, and Rembrandt, were stolen from Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in the largest art heist in American history. Investigators say they are determined to find the missing masterpieces and bring them back to Boston.

On Thursday, authorities released surveillance video from the heist in hopes of finding the artwork. Boston U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz said in a statement Thursday that the Gardner thieves took the museum surveillance film recorded the evening of the robbery, but overlooked footage from the night before. A red flag considering that letting the man in would have been against the museum’s policy, according to the NYT.

Investigators have kept an eye on him and his bank accounts for the simple reason that, according to F.B.I. statistics, most art heists involve someone on the inside.

Rick Abath, the security guard who allowed them to enter, recalled his interaction with the robbers in a March interview with NPR.

Stephen Kurkjian, author of “Master Thieves: The Boston Gangsters Who Pulled off the World’s Greatest Art Heist”, called the video release the most significant development to occur in the case in the past 25 years. The newly released video shows a auto that matches the description of one previously linked to the robbery pulling up at 12:49 a.m.to the museum’s rear entrance, where an unidentified man gets out and is allowed in through the door.

The footage shows a security guard at The Isabella Steward Gardner Museum admitting an unidentified man into the museum the night before the heist in March 1990. They had hats, badges, they looked like cops, and I let them in. He tells Here & Now’s Robin Young about the new footage and why it’s been taking the Federal Bureau of Investigation so long to solve this case.

While FBI investigators have been careful to not directly accuse Abath, they did mention that while he has always cooperated fully with the investigation, he has never spoken about this instance.

Gentile, vigorously denies having any involvement in or knowledge of the Gardner job, as does Abath.

The stolen works include Vermeer’s The Concert and Rembrandt’s The Storm on the Sea of Galilee.

The museum is offering a $5 million reward for info that leads to the return of the works in good condition.

He entered the museum through the same door that the thieves used the next day, but left in a vehicle that night, seen on a second surveillance video. “These are cultural masterpieces that we are trying to recover”.