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A review by ridgewaygirl
The Gardner Heist: The True Story of the World's Largest Unsolved Art Theft by Ulrich Boser
2.0
The Gardner Heist is one of the most famous art thefts of all time, especially since it remains unsolved and none of the stolen objects have ever surfaced. The bare bones of the theft go as follows: in 1990, two men dressed as police officers talk their way into the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in the early morning hours. They tie up the guards and make off with 13 works of art, including Vermeer's The Concert and a Rembrandt seascape. Their haul also included random items like the finial from the top of a Napoleonic flag.
The FBI investigated and leads abounded, implicating everyone from local Boston criminals, to the mob, to Whitey Bulger, to the IRA. Whether or not any of the suspects had any role in the crime remains unknown. Ulrich Boser takes the angle of interviewing and following around an art detective working for insurance companies, Harold Smith. Smith has had some notable finds, but he's older and ill and dies soon after Boser begins his research, and this is where The Gardner Heist goes off track. The history of the museum, its founder and of the crime itself were well covered, but once Boser began conducting his own investigation, the focus of the book changed from the heist and the missing artwork to the adventures of Boser as he hangs out with grifters, retired policemen and criminals who have gone straight but who might know someone who knows something. Boser writes about every fruitless lead and wild goose chase he is sent on and long before he starts recounting his dreams and his imaginary conversations, I was reading the book solely to finish it.
As far as solid information goes, there's a solid magazine article in here, underneath all the filler and fantasy. I would have rather just read an article.
The FBI investigated and leads abounded, implicating everyone from local Boston criminals, to the mob, to Whitey Bulger, to the IRA. Whether or not any of the suspects had any role in the crime remains unknown. Ulrich Boser takes the angle of interviewing and following around an art detective working for insurance companies, Harold Smith. Smith has had some notable finds, but he's older and ill and dies soon after Boser begins his research, and this is where The Gardner Heist goes off track. The history of the museum, its founder and of the crime itself were well covered, but once Boser began conducting his own investigation, the focus of the book changed from the heist and the missing artwork to the adventures of Boser as he hangs out with grifters, retired policemen and criminals who have gone straight but who might know someone who knows something. Boser writes about every fruitless lead and wild goose chase he is sent on and long before he starts recounting his dreams and his imaginary conversations, I was reading the book solely to finish it.
As far as solid information goes, there's a solid magazine article in here, underneath all the filler and fantasy. I would have rather just read an article.