The thirteen-work inventory
Document
Museum and FBI lists name each object, including Vermeer's Concert and Rembrandt's seascape. The list is the case's hard core: if a picture reappears, it can be matched to a published title.
Darker cells mean a higher score for this topic on that metric.
Notoriety86
Mystery88
Scale72
Evidence55
Legal impact40
Culture78
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Last reviewed Sources & creditsMedia creditsMethodology
Quick answers
When did the Gardner Museum theft happen?
In the early hours of 18 March 1990, after St Patrick's Day in Boston. The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum reported thirteen works missing when staff returned. The FBI opened a federal investigation that remains open.
What was taken?
Thirteen objects: Vermeer's The Concert; Rembrandt's The Storm on the Sea of Galilee and A Lady and Gentleman in Black; a Rembrandt etching; Manet's Chez Tortoni; five Degas works on paper; a Flinck landscape; a Chinese bronze gu; and a Napoleonic flag finial. The empty frames still hang.
Has anything been recovered?
No. As of the museum's public statements in the 2020s, none of the thirteen works has been returned. The FBI said in 2013 that it believed it knew who had taken them, but that announcement did not produce a recovery or a public trial of living thieves.
Is there still a reward?
Yes. The museum raised its offer to $10 million in 2017 for information leading to the return of all thirteen works in good condition. Separate, smaller sums have been discussed for individual pictures. The FBI continues to ask the public for leads.
Why are the frames still on the walls?
Isabella Stewart Gardner's will requires the collection to remain as she installed it. The museum left the frames as markers of the missing works and as a refusal to pretend the rooms are complete. Visitors still walk past them in the Dutch Room and nearby galleries.
Did the statute of limitations end the case?
The original 1990 theft can no longer be prosecuted as a standalone federal theft after the five-year limit ran in 1995. Possessing or moving the stolen works can still be a crime. The museum's stated priority is recovery, not a historic conviction.
The physical evidence the public can still see is negative: frames without pictures and a catalogue of absences.
What investigators hold beyond that — tips, informant claims, later searches — has not been converted into returned art.
Exhibits
Empty frames in situ
Object
The frames left on the Dutch Room and neighbouring walls are both exhibit and policy. They document what was cut from the stretchers and keep the loss visible to every visitor.
Night-staff statements
Testimony
The watchmen's account of two men in police guise is the opening narrative. It has not been replaced by a confessed, convicted alternative in a public trial.
FBI 2013 briefing
Press
The Bureau's announcement that it had identified the thieves and a later organised-crime path is the highest official claim. It named no recovered canvas.
Later search warrants and books
Court
Affidavits around Connecticut and Massachusetts searches, plus Globe and book reconstructions, show a long lead list. Searches did not produce the thirteen works.
Reward notices
Notice
The museum's escalating reward, $10 million from 2017 for a complete good-condition return, is itself evidence of an unclosed market in information. No one has collected it in public.
How strong is the record?
What was taken95
The object list is not in serious dispute.
Who took it40
FBI 2013 confidence has not become a public conviction or a returned picture.
Where the works are20
No verified sighting has ended in a museum recovery.
Documentary thickness60
A strong loss catalogue and a thin, still-secret investigative file.
The Gardner file is rich on titles and poor on whereabouts — the definition of an unsolved art theft.
Public-record encyclopedia. Not legal advice. Not a how-to. Graphic detail is withheld. Wars belong in a separate atlas.