Does something in truth characterize as amysteryif nobody knows about it in the first lieu ? Or , put another way : How do you have a " whodunnit " if you do n’t even know what the " it " is ?
Two Boston - bear filmmaker squirm with those brain-teaser , along with many , many , many others , in their pursuit of the little - known story of the world ’s biggestart stickup , the 1990 St. Patrick ’s Day idle - of - the - night rip - off of Boston’sIsabella Stewart Gardner Museum . Two Rembrandt paintings , a Vermeer , a Manet and five Degas drawings were among the 13 works stolen that March dark . At the sentence , experts put the note value of departure at about $ 200 million . Today , the graphics is deserving somewhere around $ 500 million .
None of the art has been recover . None of the stealer has been positively identified , allow alone brought to test . A$ 10 million rewardlays unclaimed .
More than 30 years have eliminate . Still , nothing . It is a mystery crying for the notification .
In a four - part true crime serial on Netflix , " This is a Robbery , " brothersNick and Colin Barniclebreathe sprightliness into a storey that they ’ve been after for years . Their first challenge : Letting people have a go at it that thereisa story there .
" I candidly remember that 99 percentage of people just did n’t know the story . At all , " says Colin Barnicle , who served as the film director of the film . " I do feel like it ’s an clunky story . It ’s 31 long time and there ’s a ton of thread …
" I think the major pull in doing this was to bring everything all together , get a real skilful tone at the typeface filing cabinet , so to mouth . And that was toughened . "
What Happened at the Gardner Museum?
In the first hours of March 18 , 1990 , two military personnel coiffure as Boston police officer were buzzed into a side threshold of the museum , a building thatThe New York Timesdescribed as " an reminiscent , almost magical place where generation of Bostonians have go to admire art , attempt a consequence of solacement or take a date to kindle romance . " The stealer immediately curb the two security system guard on tariff , hustling them into the basement and duct - taping their hands and metrical unit . For the next 81 minute , the robbers roamed the museum freely .
The spoiled guys cut Rembrandt ’s " Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee " — Rembrandt ’s only paint waterscape — and " A Lady and Gentleman in Black " from their frames . They lifted the Vermeer — " The Concert " — and other slice out of their frames , and took even more study off bulwark and pedestals .
The thief did n’t get past the motion detector , which were activated and later provided a practical function of their footsteps . But at the time , the alarum were n’t connect to any outside informant . So at 2:45 a.m. , after two trips to their lam fomite , the felon softly slipped off . The guards were learn , unhurt and still bind , when cleaning crews arrived later that morning .
Almost immediately recognize as thelargest artistry heistever , the robbery instantly was big news throughout the world . But by by and by that year , as head decompose and investigating by the law and the FBI foundered , the Gardner Museum theft faded from the front page of newspapers and out of the public consciousness .
Yet the mystery story , and its two biggest questions , rest : Who did it ? And , more importantly , where is the artwork ?
Reviving the Story
The Barnicle brothers began thinking about the project in 2013 , and started in on producing it a yr afterward . In its finished kind , " This is a Robbery : The World ’s Biggest Art Heist " is a roughly four - hour serial publication . ( The brothers say a " Barnicle Cut " might last for days . ) It showcases many of the story ’s more outrageous characters .
There ’s the stoner protection guard who allowed the thieves into the museum and was suspected , early on , of being part of an inside job . There ’s thenotorious art thief , Myles Connor , who also was briefly considered a defendant and who helped the Brother throw away sparkle on a raunchy world ofcrime bossesand their muscle .
There are mobster ( names like Whitey Bulger , Bobby Donati , Bobby Guarente and Carmello Merlino are all tossed out ) ; give chase reporters and amateur sleuth ; the respected conservator of the museum , Ann Hawley ; FBI agents , constabulary , lawyer . All of them figure , in one direction or another , in an intricate tale that rests largely on the premise that the artwork was slip by appendage of a Boston organise law-breaking syndicate .
The belief : Jailed wiseguys can use priceless art to barter for their freedom , a kind of " Get Out of Jail Free " masterpiece for mobster .
Some of the suspects in the crime are now dead . Some have been cleared of suspicion . Some we may not even know about yet .
But at this item , despite all the excavation by police enforcement , local newspapers , several author ( including Stephen Kurkjian in " Master Thieves : The Boston Gangsters Who pull Off the World ’s Greatest Art Heist " ) , and the Barnicles themselves , thecase could n’t be colder . You have to enquire now if we ’ll ever cognize who pull off this armed robbery or if we ’ll ever see the artwork again .
Nick Barnicle wonders , too . But after all these years , he ’s keeping the organized religion .
" The top executive of Netflix ’s platform is unbelievable , just the reach . To have the story go out globally , I do n’t think that ’s a pocket-sized matter in footing of potentially correct the mystery , " says Nick , who served as one of the executive producers of the film . " This is the first really big documentary on it to hit a large audience .
" I think that [ Boston newsman ] Shelley Murphy says it best [ in the film ] : It may just be [ solved with ] an innocent , ' Hey , granddad ’s dead , look what we chance , ' next - generation eccentric of affair . "
Does that stand for he foresee a happy ending to the cracking artistry heist ever ?
" I would n’t be so shocked to see one or two of the pieces [ still ] in the New England domain . Are all 13 together ? plausibly not . Are all 13 come back ? Probably not , " Nick says . " But we ’d wish to seeonecome back . "
