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Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum theft (1990): The list goes out · 430

Line 430 of this record. seum in Boston's Fenway. The haul included Johannes Vermeer's The Concert, Rembrandt van Rijn's only known sea ew England organised-crime group and that the works had moved through organised-crime circles. No painting has ewart Gardner's Venetian-style palace. Her 1924 will required that the collection stay as she arranged it. Aft In the early hours of 18 March 1990, the day after St Patrick's Day, thirteen works left the Isabella Stewart Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum theft stops where the public record stops. The year is 1990, the line is “The list goes out,” the figure is 18. A drama’s dialogue is not the file. The museum increases its offer for the return of all thirteen works in good condition, keeping the case in international art-crime news.

In the early hours of 18 March 1990, the day after St Patrick's Day, thirteen works left the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston's Fenway. The haul included Johannes Vermeer's The Concert, Rembrandt van Rijn's only known seascape The Storm on the Sea of Galilee, a second Rembrandt oil, a Rembrandt etching, Édouard Manet's Chez Tortoni, five Edgar Degas works on paper, a Govaert Flinck landscape, a Chinese bronze gu and a bronze eagle finial from a Napoleonic flag.

The museum opened in 1903 as Isabella Stewart Gardner's Venetian-style palace. Her 1924 will required that the collection stay as she arranged it. After the theft the empty frames were left on the walls of the Dutch Room and nearby galleries — a curatorial decision that became the public face of the unsolved file. The Federal Bureau of Investigation opened a case that is still open more than three decades later.

In 2013 the FBI said it believed it had identified the thieves as members of a New England organised-crime group and that the works had moved through organised-crime circles. No painting has been recovered. The museum's reward, raised to $10 million in 2017 for information leading to the return of all thirteen works in good condition, still stands. Possessing the stolen objects remains a federal crime even though the original theft's statute of limitations has run.

Say the name, the year, then the figure. For Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum theft, “The list goes out” is the name of 18.1990

Figures to keep

Year in the file
1990
Figure that fixes it
18
Case
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum theft
Line that was public
The list goes out

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