Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Theft: Suspects, Guard, and Reward

In the early hours of March 18, 1990, two men dressed as Boston police officers talked their way into the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, tied up the two guards on duty, and walked out with 13 works of art now valued at an estimated $500 million to more than $1 billion. The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum theft remains the largest property crime in American history. More than 35 years later, nothing has been recovered, no one has been charged, and the FBI still classifies the case as active. The museum offers a reward of up to $10 million for information leading to the return of all 13 works in good condition.¹

What Happened That Night

At about 1:24 a.m. on St. Patrick’s Day weekend, two men in police uniforms rang the museum’s intercom and told the guard on duty they were responding to a disturbance. The guard, 23-year-old Rick Abath, buzzed them in through the employee entrance, violating museum protocol. Once inside, the men asked whether he was alone, learned that a second guard was making rounds, and had Abath call him down.²³

With both guards together, the men announced a robbery, took them to the basement, duct-taped their eyes and heads, and handcuffed them to fixtures. Motion detectors tracked the intruders through the galleries. They made two trips to a waiting car and left by 2:45 a.m. The guards were not freed until police arrived at 8:15 that morning.² The thieves were inside for roughly 81 minutes.

What the Thieves Took

The 13 stolen objects came from three galleries. The thieves took some of the most irreplaceable works in the collection while leaving others of comparable monetary value untouched:

Johannes Vermeer’s The Concert (c. 1663–66), one of only about 36 or 37 known Vermeers and Gardner’s first major acquisition. One dealer estimated in 2019 that this painting alone could be worth nearly $500 million.⁴
Rembrandt’s Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee (1633), his only known seascape, cut from its frame.
Rembrandt’s A Lady and Gentleman in Black (1633), a large double portrait, also cut from its frame.
Rembrandt’s Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1633), a tiny etching less than two inches across.
Govaert Flinck’s Landscape with an Obelisk (1638), long attributed to Rembrandt before being reidentified in the 1980s.⁵
Édouard Manet’s Chez Tortoni (c. 1875), taken from the first-floor Blue Room; the frame was left behind.²
Five works by Edgar Degas, including Cortège aux environs de Florence, Three Mounted Jockeys, La Sortie de Pesage, and two charcoal studies for Programme for an Artistic Soirée.
A Chinese bronze gu (beaker) dating to roughly 1200–1100 B.C.
A Napoleonic bronze eagle finial (c. 1813–14), taken from a flagstaff in the Short Gallery.⁶

Estimates of the total value have climbed over the years. Museum curator Karen Haas put the loss at more than $200 million at the time; the FBI said roughly $500 million by 2000; and in 2019 Old Masters dealer Otto Naumann estimated more than $1 billion.⁴ The works were not insured against theft. A museum spokesperson said Gardner’s will prohibited the purchase of replacement works, making that coverage essentially irrelevant.⁷

Who the FBI Thinks Did It

No one has ever been arrested for the theft, but investigators have long focused on a group of criminals tied to Boston-area organized crime. Most of the main suspects are dead.

The Merlino Crew

The theory that has gained the most traction inside the FBI points to associates of Carmello “Charlie” Merlino, who ran an auto-repair shop in Dorchester called TRC Auto Electric. According to retired lead FBI agent Geoffrey Kelly, Merlino orchestrated the heist and the two men who entered the museum were George Reissfelder and Leonard DiMuzio.⁸ Kelly, author of the 2025 book Thirteen Perfect Fugitives, believes Reissfelder owned the getaway car and has noted that Reissfelder’s brother recognized the stolen Manet as a painting that had hung above George’s bed.⁹

Reissfelder died in 1991 of a drug overdose under circumstances investigators considered suspicious. DiMuzio was found dead in the trunk of a car the same year. Merlino died in prison in 2005 without ever providing information about the heist or the location of the art.¹⁰

Bobby Donati

Another theory holds that mob associate Robert “Bobby” Donati was the mastermind. Donati had previously scouted the museum with known art thief Myles Connor, and Kelly has said Donati referred to the Napoleonic eagle finial as a possible “calling card.” Donati was found stabbed to death in 1991.⁹

David Turner

David Turner, also associated with the Merlino crew, has long been considered a suspect. Turner was convicted in 2001 for his role in a plot to rob a Loomis-Fargo armored car depot in Easton, Massachusetts, and was originally sentenced to 460 months. He was resentenced to time served in 2019 after a Supreme Court ruling invalidated certain firearms convictions related to conspiracy charges.¹¹ Reporters have suggested that an earlier, separate sentence reduction may have been tied to cooperation with authorities on the Gardner case, though neither the FBI nor Turner’s attorney has confirmed this. Investigators noted that Turner bought surveillance equipment at a Miami spy shop shortly before the heist and had apparently fabricated a Florida alibi. Turner has denied participating, calling the allegations against him “rumor and conjecture.”¹⁰

Robert Gentile

Robert “Bobby the Cook” Gentile of Manchester, Connecticut, became a persistent person of interest. During a 2012 search of his home, federal agents found a handwritten list of the stolen Gardner paintings with estimated black-market prices, along with weapons, police badges, and $20,000 in cash.¹² Prosecutors said Gentile had bragged to fellow inmates about his involvement and that a 2015 polygraph showed a “likelihood of less than 0.1 percent that he was truthful” when he denied knowing where the art was.¹³

Gentile was convicted on separate gun and drug charges and sentenced to 54 months in federal prison. His defense argued the charges were manufactured to pressure him into revealing information about the art. He denied any knowledge of the paintings until his death in September 2021 at age 85, telling an interviewer in 2019, “I had nothing to do with the paintings. It’s a big joke.”¹⁴

Not Whitey Bulger

Boston crime boss James “Whitey” Bulger’s name has surfaced repeatedly, but investigators generally consider his involvement unlikely. Bulger was an FBI informant at the time and under heavy pressure from other agencies. Anthony Amore, the museum’s director of security, has stated plainly that “Bulger was not a person of interest in the Gardner theft.”¹⁵ Investigators also looked at a possible Irish Republican Army link, which was known to steal art in Europe to raise funds, but authorities appear to have ruled it out.¹⁶

The Guard Who Opened the Door

Rick Abath spent the rest of his life under suspicion. Investigators noted that the Blue Room’s motion detectors recorded only Abath’s footsteps during his initial patrol, with no record of the thieves ever entering that room, even though Manet’s Chez Tortoni was taken from there.¹⁷ Retired FBI agent Geoffrey Kelly later wrote that Abath could have been charged, specifically for opening a door against protocol shortly before the robbery, though the statute of limitations expired long ago.⁹ Abath always maintained his innocence. His attorney said his actions were “completely appropriate” and that Abath was in the “wrong place at the wrong time.” He was never charged or formally cleared. He died in February 2024 at age 57.

Where the Art May Have Gone

The paper trail after 1990 is thin. The FBI said in 2013 that the art had been transported to Connecticut and the Philadelphia area in the years after the theft, and that at least one work had been offered for sale in Philadelphia roughly a decade before.¹⁸

A central figure in the custody theory is Robert Guarente, a mob-connected bank robber who died in 2004. His widow, Elene Guarente, told FBI agent Geoffrey Kelly and Anthony Amore in 2010 that she had seen her husband hand over stolen masterpieces to his best friend in a seafood restaurant parking lot in Portland, Maine, around the time of his death. She also told investigators she had seen her husband pass a painting in a carrying tube to Robert Gentile at their home in Maine in the early 1990s.¹⁹²⁰ Her account became a central piece of the government’s case against Gentile.

Why No One Has Been Charged

On March 18, 2013, the 23rd anniversary of the heist, the FBI announced that investigators had identified the people responsible and linked the crime to a criminal organization based in the mid-Atlantic region and New England. The Bureau declined to name the suspects publicly, with Special Agent in Charge Richard DesLauriers calling it “imprudent” and saying it would hinder the effort to locate the art.¹⁸

U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz explained that the statute of limitations for the theft itself, six years under federal law, had expired long before, meaning the original thieves could not be prosecuted for the robbery even if identified.²¹ Anyone currently possessing or concealing the stolen art, however, still faces potential federal charges under 18 U.S.C. § 668, which criminalizes the knowing receipt, concealment, or disposal of stolen cultural property and carries up to 10 years in prison.²² The government has also offered potential immunity for anyone connected to the theft or concealment who helps recover the paintings.¹⁸

The FBI’s Boston Field Office continues to work the case with the Massachusetts U.S. Attorney’s Office and the museum. As of March 2025, FBI Boston Special Agent in Charge Jodi Cohen said the investigation “continues to be very active” and that all leads were being “thoroughly vetted.”⁸ The stolen works remain in the FBI’s National Stolen Art File.²³

The Reward and How to Submit a Tip

The museum offers a reward of up to $10 million for information leading to the return of all 13 stolen works in good condition. The reward was raised to $10 million in 2017 with an initial December 31 deadline, and the Board of Trustees later voted to extend it with no new expiration date.¹ A separate $100,000 reward is offered specifically for the Napoleonic eagle finial.² Tips can be submitted to the museum’s security office or through the FBI’s tip portal. Anthony Amore has built an independent investigative operation at the museum that functions as a parallel channel for tipsters uncomfortable dealing directly with the FBI, and a 2011 arrangement allows the museum and the Bureau to share tips and theories freely.²⁴

The Empty Frames

Five empty frames still hang in the galleries where the stolen paintings once lived. The museum repaired them after the theft and returned them to the walls in 1994.²⁵ Isabella Stewart Gardner’s will requires that “nothing in the galleries should be permanently changed” and that “no artworks can be acquired or deaccessioned from the collection.”²⁶ The frames wait where the paintings used to be.

1
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Board of Trustees Extends $10 Million Reward
2
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. The Theft
3
NPR. Former Security Guard Reflects on What He Lost One Fateful Night
4
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FBI. Reward Offered for Return of Stolen Gardner Museum Artwork
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WBUR. The Missing Art
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Boston.com. What to Know About the Gardner Museum Heist 35 Years Later
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Associated Press. Inside the World’s Largest Art Heist
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WBUR. Two Bad Men
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U.S. Department of Justice. Dorchester Man Resentenced in Role in Plot to Rob Armored Car Depot
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Hartford Courant. Gentile to Serve 11 More Months
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Hartford Courant. Prosecutors Reveal More Evidence They Say Ties Robert Gentile to Gardner Museum Robbery
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CBS News Boston. Robert Gentile Death
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Artnet News. Whitey Bulger Last Living Link to Gardner Museum Heist
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WGBH. Whitey Bulger, the Philly Mob, the IRA: Experts Talk Gardner Heist
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WBUR. Rick Abath, Gardner Night Watchman, Dead
18
U.S. Department of Justice. FBI Provides New Information Regarding 1990 Gardner Museum Art
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Telegram & Gazette. Mafioso’s Widow Confirms Husband’s Role
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WBUR. Bobby Guarente, Key to Gardner Heist
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Hyperallergic. FBI Amps Up Efforts for 1990 Gardner Museum Art Theft
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Cornell Law Institute. 18 U.S. Code Section 668
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Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Other Ways of Seeing: Conservators