35 years later, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum heist remains a mystery

The largest art heist in history is still unsolved.

Late at night after St. Patrick’s Day celebrations in 1990, two men dressed as Boston police officers talked their way into the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Over the course of 81 minutes, they stole 13 works, including paintings by Vermeer, Degas and Rembrandt, now worth at least half a billion dollars.

Anthony Amore, the museum’s director of security, says they’re still focused on finding the paintings — even if online sleuths are wrapped in the day of the heist.

“Though it’s interesting to parse what happened on March 18, 1990, when the theft was being perpetrated, what’s really important to us is the location of the paintings today,” Amore said on GBH’s The Culture Show Tuesday. “There’s only one rightful place for these works, that they can be unlike any other painting in the world. Our goal is just recovery, not prosecution or ‘whodunnit?’”

Some believe that the paintings stolen in the Gardner heist have been destroyed or otherwise disposed of in the 35 years since their theft. Amore is “certain that’s not the case.”

“I’ve spoken to everybody. I’ve spoken to every criminal that you’ve ever heard of, the most powerful criminals in the state over the course of 20 years,” he said. “No one has ever heard that the paintings were destroyed. No one.

“The last time a Rembrandt was stolen and destroyed was almost a hundred years ago, because they’re too valuable and too easy to hide. Art history tells us thieves do not destroy these things when they steal them,” he continued. “We’re very confident that we’re chasing paintings that exist and will be in a condition to be hung on the walls again.”

In the decadeslong search for the stolen artworks, Amore says it’s hard to say how close the Gardner has been to finding them.

“It’s one thing for someone to say — hypothetically — ‘well, the paintings are still here in Boston.’ OK. That’s a lot of places to check,” Amore said. “I often tell people: Imagine if we searched 9 Broadway in Anytown, USA, but they were at 10. We were right next door, but that’s a world away.”

Still, the Gardner Museum’s standing $10 million reward for information leading to the recovery of the paintings has yet to provide any notable leads.

“Wives become ex-wives. And children grow up, and remember things they saw, and decide to do the right thing,” he said. “People don’t buy Lamborghinis to hide them. People don’t buy masterpieces to hide them. And people don’t buy stolen are to hide it.”

This year’s anniversary of the heist is particularly poignant as the Gardner Museum’s Dutch Room — which held the majority of the stolen artworks — is currently undergoing a “floor-to-ceiling” restoration. Holly Salmon, the museum’s director of conservation, is leading that effort.

Those artworks’ frames have remained empty since the theft; they’re being restored, as well, in preparation for the eventual return of the paintings.

“They’re really there as a reminder of what happened and this symbol of hope for that return,” Salmon said.

“It isn’t complete until those pieces come back,” she added.

If you have any information leading to the recovery of the stolen artworks, contact reward@gardnermuseum.org. To hear more from Anthony Amore and Holly Salmon, listen to the full interview above. You can tune in to  The Culture Show  daily at 2 p.m. on 89.7, or stream online at gbhnews.org.