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Welcome to Spotlight. I’m Andrew Devis.
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And I’m Megan Nollet. Spotlight uses a special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand, no matter where in the world they live.
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Saint Patrick’s Day is one of the biggest celebrations of the year in Boston, Massachusetts. The day honors Saint Patrick. He helped bring Christianity to Ireland. Many people who are not Irish still have parties. They play loud music and drink alcohol. For a few hours, they forget the worries of their everyday lives. People are not paying attention to much else happening around them. They assume everything is fine and can wait until morning. But one night following Saint Patrick’s Day, everything was not fine. People did not know that some things would be gone in the morning. They had no idea that thirteen famous works of art worth hundreds of millions of dollars would be missing.
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Today’s Spotlight looks at a robbery. A robbery is when someone takes something that does not belong to them. This robbery took place on March 18th, 1990 in Boston, Massachusetts. Saint Patrick’s Day has just ended. It was 12:30 in the morning. A few people leaving a party walked home near the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in downtown Boston. They passed a car that was sitting one hundred feet from the side door to the museum. Two men wearing police uniforms sat in the car. The people kept walking without saying anything to the men. The two men in police clothing did not get out of their car for another fifty minutes.
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At 1:20 in the morning the two men in police clothing walked to the museum’s side door. They flipped a switch to speak to the security guards sitting inside the museum. Two security guards were on duty that night. The two men told the guards that someone had reported a problem at the museum. They needed to come in to investigate. One of the guards, Richard Abath, saw on his security television screen that the men outside were wearing police uniforms. Abath had not heard there was a problem at the museum, but he let the men in.
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The policemen entered a waiting area. Abath still had to let them into the main museum. The men said Abath looked like a criminal for whom they had been looking. They demanded Abath let them in. When Abath did, the men caught Abath and the other security guard and handcuffed them. Handcuffs are metal restraint devices designed to hold a person’s wrists together. One of the men wearing police clothing said:
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“This is a robbery.”
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The two robbers, or thieves, were just acting like policemen. They put the security guards in the museum’s basement – the floor below ground level. They tied fabric around the guards’ heads and eyes. The thieves handcuffed the guards to a pipe. The thieves told the guards that if they did not tell the police about them later, they would send them money in a year.
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It was now 1:35 in the morning. The Boston Police Department did not know that two thieves were inside the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. The thieves walked to the Dutch Room on the second floor. This room held many great works of art by Dutch artists. The thieves destroyed the alarm that sounded when someone got too close to a painting. The thieves took two paintings off the wall. They cut the glass around the paintings. The paintings were Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee and A Lady and Gentleman in Black, both by the painter, Rembrandt. Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee is Rembrandt’s only seascape painting. The thieves used knives to cut the paintings out of their frames.
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They took other famous works of art from the Dutch Room, including The Concert by Vermeer. The Concert is one of only thirty-four paintings Vermeer completed. He is considered a master. The Concert is worth $250,000,000. It is the world’s most valuable, stolen object.
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The thieves moved to a room called the Short Gallery. They stole six things, including five pieces by the French artist Degas.
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The final painting stolen was Chez Tortoni by the French artist, Manet. It hung in the Blue Room.
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The thieves then visited the guards in the basement and asked if they were okay. The thieves left the outer wooden frame for Chez Tortoni at the security director’s workstation. They carried the stolen artwork through the museum’s side door to their car.
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The thieves left at 2:45 in the morning. They stole thirteen works of art valued at over $500,000,000. The thieves spent 81 minutes in the museum. It is considered the biggest museum robbery in history.
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A few hours later, other museum security guards arrived for their shift. They could not find anyone to let them in. They called the security director who came to the museum with his keys. When they went inside and did not find Abath and the other guard, the director called the police. Boston Police Department officers came and searched inside the building. They found Abath and his coworker blindfolded and handcuffed in the basement.
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The Federal Bureau of Investigation, or FBI, took control of the case. They questioned Abath and his coworkers many times. The FBI talked to the people who walked by the two thieves sitting in their car before the robbery. The FBI made images of the thieves’ faces based on what the witnesses remembered.
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Investigators searched the museum for fingerprints and other evidence that could identify the thieves. They found none. They questioned members of local gangs connected to a criminal organization called the Boston Mafia. But no one told the FBI anything about the Gardner Museum robbery.
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For many years, the FBI suspected Abath had been involved in the robbery. Several strange things happened involving Abath. The Gardner Museum’s rules for workers clearly stated that security guards were not to let anyone in without official permission, including police. Abath said he did not know about that rule. That was why he let the two thieves in who were wearing police clothing.
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On the night of the robbery, before the thieves arrived, Abath walked through the museum making sure everything was okay. This was part of his job. Twice, Abath walked through a room called the Blue Room. The museum used motion sensors in each room. The FBI later reviewed the records for the motion sensors that showed no one entered the Blue Room during the 81 minutes of the robbery. The final painting that was stolen was named Chez Tortoni from the Blue Room. If the thieves did not enter the Blue Room, who took Chez Tortoni? Only one person had been in the Blue Room that night – Abath.
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Also, while walking through the museum, Abath opened and closed the side door to the museum. Abath said he had done this to make sure the door was working correctly. But investigators considered two other possibilities. One was that Abath opened the side door to signal to the thieves sitting in their car that it was time to enter the museum. The other was that Abath opened the door to take the painting Chez Tortoni out to the two thieves in their car.
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Finally, the FBI questioned how nicely the two thieves had treated Abath and his fellow guard. It seemed strange to the FBI that the thieves were so concerned with the guards’ wellbeing unless they were working with Abath.
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Abath denied any involvement in the robbery. For years, he remained a suspect and was questioned again many times. But Abath promised he was not working with the thieves and did not know them. Abath said:
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“The investigators wanted to know if I had taken the painting, Chez Tortoni, and hid it somewhere. I told them, as I have said a hundred times before and since, I had nothing to do with the robbers or the robbery.”
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Abath spent the rest of his life in Vermont with his wife. They lived in a small home. Abath worked as a teacher’s assistant. If he had been involved in the robbery, Abath’s life didn’t show any signs of wealth from selling the stolen artwork.
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It has been more than 35 years since the robbery at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, but the FBI still has not arrested anyone. None of the thirteen stolen works of art have been found or returned. Many questions remain unanswered. Who were the thieves? Why did they take the paintings? Where is the artwork now? Why did the thieves leave the frame for Chez Tortoni on the security director’s workstation? Why did they steal some pieces but not take other valuable paintings?
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The Gardner Museum has offered a $10,000,000 prize for information leading to the recovery of the stolen artwork. Until then, the museum still believes in the power of art to change people’s lives and better the world. The Gardner Museum proudly displays its remaining artwork alongside empty frames where the stolen paintings were once hung. The empty frames will not be taken down until the paintings are returned.
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Who are some of your favorite painters? Why do you think the robbers who stole the paintings from the Gardner Museum have never been caught? Do you think anyone will ever find the missing paintings? You can leave a comment on our website at www.spotlightenglish.com. You can also find us on YouTube, Facebook, TikTok, Instagram and X. You can also get Spotlight episodes delivered directly to your Android or Apple device through our free official Spotlight English app.
Voice 2
The writer of this episode was Peter Anderson. The producer was Michio Ozaki. The voices you heard were from the United Kingdom and the United States. All quotes were adapted for this episode and voiced by Spotlight. No AI or artificial intelligence was used in this episode. Spotlight episodes are written, voiced, and produced by real people for real people, no matter where in the world they live. This episode is called, “Stealing Rembrandt.”
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We hope you can join us again for the next Spotlight episode. Goodbye.
Questions:
Who are some of your favorite painters? Why do you think the robbers who stole the paintings from the Gardner Museum have never been caught? Do you think anyone will ever find the missing paintings?
