Stolen Art Watch, Charles Vincent Sabba, Artist, Art Theft Investigator, Art Loss Consultant, Documenting Art Crime Through The Paintbrush

When Art Theft Becomes Art Itself

http://ducretartistpipeline.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/art-theft-becomes-art-itself.html

When you ask him how as a policeman he got started in art, Charlie will politely correct your perception. "It's the other way around. I am an artist first and then a policeman," he states with a refreshing mix of artistic exhuberance and sensibility that emits only from those who are clearly established 'in their element'. Actually, artist Charlie is a police sergeant, an art theft investigator and art loss consultant as well, formally speaking,"as the director of Unitel's Art Recovery Consultancy division, Charles Sabba has CONCENTRATED on some of the world's major art theft mysteries, not as law enforcement, but more akin to the enigmatic world of intelligence operatives And this particular art theft consultant has done just that. On May 16th at 8pm Charles Sabba will seamlessly blend both careers and present to the public some behind-the-scenes insight on the search for the thieves via The Gardner Museum Heist Exhibition-lecture at the Salmagundi Club in NYC.

Accompanying Charles at his lecture will be an 8' x 10' Isabella Steward Gardner Heist freshly painted depiction, which includes many of the prominent figures that were and are involved in the 22 year old 'unsolved' case. If ever there were a way to artfully document this fascinating study of human behavior at it's worst and best - it is through Mr. Sabba, who paints with the unusual edge of an insider's eye. The estimated heist price was $500 million and included works by Vermeer, Rembrandt, Degas and Manet. It connected an heiress, mobsters and politicians, and a host of prominent business men and women spanning over a few decades and continents. The incredible irony of this long-running hi-end drama and the upcoming unveiling in May is that the original criminals actually kicked off the heist - dressed in police uniforms.

Mr. Sabba, who can often be found in his art loft at The duCret School of Art, located in Plainfield NJ, is a typical artist only in that - as artists often do - he has managed to put a whole new and rather lighthearted twist on the redundant theme of 'humans stealing from other humans'. It temporarily lifts a soul's focus away from the similarily unsolvable political and banking industry foibles of recent years. Perhaps in the very near future, someone might even be savvy enough to commmission Mr. Sabba to paint the connected-iconic figures involved in creating and proliferating the 'disappearing money syndrome' that became a devastated world economy!

Both the upcoming lecture and exhibition at the Salmagundi Club are open to the public and the admission is free. In the name of the world's largest 'whodunit' art theft case, this should be one very interesting crowd to mingle amongst. A reception party will begin at 6:30pm and the lecture will begin at 8pm. The Salmagundi Dining Room and bar will be open to the public during the exhibition. For dinner reservations, call(212) 255-7740. Dinner is served Tues - Fri, 6 - 9pm with the bar open Mon - Fri, 5:00 - 10:30pm. The Salmagundi Club is located at Forty-Seven Fifth Avenue | New York, NY 10003. For more information regarding Charles Sabba, contact duCret school of Art at 908-757-7171 between 9am - 4pm or visit www.ducret.edu.

http://unitel.com/art-loss-consultants

Until his untimely death a few years back, former NYPD Detective and noted artist in his own right, Robert Volpe, the "Art Cop" who had headed up the NYPD's Art Fraud unit was Unitel's consulting director of our art loss services. We are pleased to announce the new appointment of Charles V. Sabba, Jr., as Unitel's consulting art loss director. Mr. Sabba maintains his primary duties as a career police officer in New Jersey, but will act as a special consultant to Unitel in the area of art thefts and advisor to Unitel concerning consulting advice for museums and other owners of art collections. Mr. Sabba, both an artist in his own right and a law enforcement officer, is presently a leading art theft chronicler and art historian. Mr. Sabba possesses an encyclopedic memory of all the world's major art thefts as well as a large database of known art criminals and informants throughout the world. Since 1990, Mr. Sabba, on his own personal time, has been studying the Isabella Gardner art theft - the largest unsolved art theft in the United States.

Mr. Sabba has a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the School of Visual Arts, New York and a certificate from the DuCret School of Art, Plainfield, New Jersey. He has completed courses at the FBI Academy, Quantico, VA in Forensic Facial Imaging and in 2004, completed a course in Art & Antiques Crime, New Scotland Yard, London. He has authored two articles: Sicilian Mystery: Where in the World is Caravaggio's stolen Nativity (US Italia Weekly); and, Museum of Stolen Art (US Italia weekly).

He is a member of the Salmagundi Club, New York, the leading American art club since 1871, as well as a member of the International Foundation for Cultural Property Protection.

Strategic Alliance

Unitel and Avante Int'l Technology, Inc., announce the formation of a Strategic Alliance for Unitel to provide the Fine Arts client, Avante's break-through technology for the protection of Art Works and other valuables through the use of Avante's patented RFID technology.

Using sophisticated unobtrusive electronic monitoring tags unobtrusively fixed to the back of Art Works or other Valuables, and Avante's Real-Time location technology, Valuables are protected every second 24/7/365. The cost-effective system provides unparalleled visibility of the position, movement, ambient light level, temperature and humidity of every protected Work of Art with embedded tiny sensors that transmit instantaneous alerts. The IP-based RFID monitoring solution provides total real-time multi-layer security and safety providing even cell phone SMS text notifications everywhere, as well as mobile transportation of artwork by truck to shows or other locations via GPRS and satellite communications.

The entire system is web based and independent of any existing security system as well as providing input to existing communications infrastructure. Staff can be equipped with RFID ID badges that provides real-time as to location, movement and temperature data and panic- button interface.

Stolen Art Watch, Gardner Art Heist, Crime Artist Charles Vincent Sabba Unveils Gardner Gossips May 16th 2012 Salmagundi Club New York

Charlie Sabba explaining the large 8 foot by 6 foot 8 inch painting in his DuCret art studio (See the Newark Star Ledger feature by Tony Kurdzuk here: http://photos.nj.com/star-ledger/2012/03/ducret_art_school_85th_anniver_4.html

NJ’s Oldest Art School, duCret School of Art Celebrates 85th Year

The duCret School of Art celebrated it's 85th Anniversary with a Faculty-Alumni Art Show & Sale on the duCret school grounds. Attending were nationally and internationally Known NJ artists.

Plainfield, NJ, April 11, 2012 --(PR.com)-- If ever there were a way to meet history in person, it would be at this year's art show celebration. Amassing at the show were the works of over fifty notable duCret artists, many who have become either nationally or internationally known in the recent decades.

For instance, Charles Vincent Sabba, who has divided his life between being a Rahway, NJ police officer, a forensic sketch artist and an artist himself.

Over time, this unique combination of skills manifested into an equally unique career path, as Charles became involved in investigating crimes related with art.

This unusual focus has led him to work on some of the biggest art theft cases in world history. One can often find Charles sequestered in his studio loft at duCret, painting to canvas, the history of the cases he's worked on.

His Gardner Art Heist piece, a massive painting depicting all involved with the crime will be on display at the Salmagundi Club on May 16, 2012 at 6:30pm, with a lecture to accompany the piece reflecting the heist.

The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Heist
Salon, May 16, 2012

http://www.salmagundi.org/content.cfm/salmagundi/Isabella-Stewart-Gardner-Museum-Heist/id/67

The date: March 18, 1990. The time: 1:20 A.M. The place: Boston. Two lone figures sit quietly in a small hatchback on Palace Road, carefully watching the clock and waiting. As the clock strikes 1:24 A.M., the figures, dressed in police uniforms, move silently to a side door of a business and knock. These men do not appear threatening or out of place yet they are about to commit one of the greatest art thefts of all time: The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Heist.

Twenty two years have passed since that night and the whereabouts of the stolen works still remain a mystery; works by Vermeer, Rembrandt, Degas, Manet and others with an estimated worth of $500 million. How did this happen? Who was involved? Where are the works now?

On Wednesday, May 16, at 8:00 p.m. Salmagundi Member and Art Cop Charles V. Sabba will shed new light on these questions and others. As Director of Unitel’s Art Loss Recovery Division, Mr. Sabba has been involved with the investigation for some time and has gotten close enough to many of the suspects to even paint their portrait. These portraits as well as other works by Mr. Sabba, will be on view May 13-19 in the Patrons’ Gallery Exhibition, "Charles Sabba’s Visual Investigation into the Isabella Steward Gardner Museum Heist."

Both the lecture and exhibition are open to the public and admission is free.


Charles Sabba's visual investigation into the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Heist,

The art exhibition will run from May 14 throughMay 20, 2012.
Opening is on Tues, May 16 at 6:30 and lecture at 8:00pm.
The lecture is on the robbery that resulted in the loss of $500 million worth of art and all of the suspects, investigators, reporters, and all the other players that have been involved in the investigation over the past 22 yrs.

Please join us at: Salmagundi Club,

47 Fitfth Ave, New York, N.Y. 10003

(212)-255-7740 www.salmagundi.org

Charles Vincent Sabba's art works can be viewed here: http://local-artists.org/users/charles-v-sabba

His art under world visual investigations are documented here: http://www.yourbrushwiththelaw.com/

Vive la Boheme! A scholarly dissertation on Bohemia and Bohemian art and culture from the 1830s until present can be viewed here: http://youngbohemia.blogspot.com/

Sabba's artistic project to change the anatomy of his brain is documented here:

http://the10thguild.blogspot.com/

Stolen Art, Watch, Gardner Heist Tentacles Squeezing

Gardner Art Theft Suspect Gentile Hit With Weapons Charges

http://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-gentile-new-indict-0410-20120409,0,7258327.story

Federal prosecutors have filed weapons charges against mobster Robert Gentile, adding to the potential prison sentence faced by a man authorities believe may have information about the world's most sensational art heist, the theft of 13 masterworks from Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.

The U.S. Attorney's office said Monday that a federal grand jury has returned a new indictment based on a variety of weapons seized during a search in February of the 75-year-old Gentile's home in Manchester. A federal judge said in February that Gentile's home contained a "veritable arsenal."

In Gentile's basement and in a backyard shed, FBI agents found pistols, a shotgun, silencers, a variety of ammunition, brass knuckles and a sap, among other things.

Gentile's lawyer, A. Ryan McGuigan, called Gentile "a sick old man" and said federal authorities have charged him in a mistaken belief that he can be pressured to reveal information about the unsolved museum heist 22 years ago. McGuigan said Gentile was not involved in the robbery and knows nothing about it or what happened to the stolen art.

The FBI searched Gentile's home on February 10 in connection with his arrest and the arrest of associate Robert Parente, 75, for possession and sale of prescription painkillers such as Oxycontin, Percocet and Dilaudid. Only Gentile has been charged with weapons crimes.

Since both men are convicted felons, they face enhanced prison sentences if convicted of the drug charges.

In the new indictment, Gentile also faces enhanced sentences as a convicted felon in possession of weapons.

He is accused of being a felon in possession of three pistols, a felon in possession of multiple rounds of various kinds of ammunition, including .12-gauge shotgun shells, and possession of four home-made silencers, devices designed to muffle the reports of firearms.

The gun, ammunition and silencer charges carry sentences of up to 10 years. Gentile also faces as much as 20 years on the previously filed drug charges.

A federal judge has called Gentile a threat to public safety and ordered him held without bail while awaiting trial.

The art theft from the Gardner Museum in Boston on March 18, 1990, devastated the art world, and the inability of investigators around the world to find even a hint of the stolen paintings has become an enduring mystery.

Among the pieces stolen were three Rembrandts, a Vermeer, a Manet and five drawings by Degas. Two of the paintings — "Storm on the Sea of Galilee," Rembrandt's only known seascape, and Vermeer's "The Concert" — each could be worth than more $50 million in an open market. All the stolen pieces might be worth $500 million or more.

At least two thieves were involved in the theft. They dressed as police officers and used the uniforms to trick one of two museum guards into opening a door at about 1:30 a.m., the end ofSt. Patrick's Daycelebrations in Boston.

During one of Gentile's appearances in court since his arrest, federal prosecutors said one or more police uniforms where found with the drugs, weapons and cash hidden in Gentile's modest ranch-style home.

The Gardner thieves bound the museum guards with duct tape and, less than 90 minutes later, drove away into the night in a red car. There has been one lead in 22 years, according to the museum. It went nowhere.

"The government has reason to believe that Mr. Gentile had some involvement with stolen property out of the District of Massachusetts," Assistant U.S. Attorney John Durham said in U.S. District Court in Hartford on March 27, during Gentile's second, unsuccessful attempt to win release on bond.

McGuigan said Gentile knows nothing about the stolen art and has been targeted by FBI agents frustrated over the inability to find the stolen paintings.

"What is happening, Your Honor, is that the government is asking you to set a punitive bond, to keep him uncomfortable, to torture him," McGuigan said. "He unfortunately doesn't have the information that the government is looking for. But the government believes he does."

Gentile, who lives in Manchester, has been a player in the Connecticut rackets for years, according to police and other sources. He has an arrest record dating to the 1950s, mostly on minor state charges. He served a six-month sentence, once.

Associates believe that if Gentile had even the faintest idea of the location of the paintings, he would have tried to trade it for the $5 million reward years ago.

Law enforcement records and other sources indicate that, during the 1990, Gentile was associated with a mob crew in the Boston area that at least one FBI informant has linked to the Gardner heist. Law enforcement and other sources have said that Gentile is known to have to have met after the theft with a gangster suspected of once having access to the stolen paintings.

In the late 1990s, Gentile became a sworn member of a Boston-based crew of the dominant mafia group in Philadelphia, law enforcement and other sources said.

Durham said during the hearing in federal court in March that Gentile was associated with a crew active in Boston and led by Capo Robert Luisi, but associated with Philadelphia's mafia family. It was Luisi who "made" Gentile by inducting him into the Philadelphia family, Durham said in court.

When Luisi was arrested and confronted with a long prison sentence for selling cocaine about a decade ago, he implicated Gentile and other alleged members of his crew in a long list of criminal activity, Durham said.

Stolen Art Watch, Gardner Art Heist, A Visual Investigation Featuring "Gardner Gossips" by Charles Vincent Sabba

Charlie Sabba explaining the large 8 foot by 6 foot 8 inch painting in his DuCret art studio (See the Newark Star Ledger feature by Tony Kurdzuk here: http://photos.nj.com/star-ledger/2012/03/ducret_art_school_85th_anniver_4.html

Gardner Gossips: http://gardnergossips.blogspot.co.uk/

The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Heist

Salon, May 16, 2012

http://www.salmagundi.org/content.cfm/salmagundi/Isabella-Stewart-Gardner-Museum-Heist/id/67

The date: March 18, 1990. The time: 1:20 A.M. The place: Boston. Two lone figures sit quietly in a small hatchback on Palace Road, carefully watching the clock and waiting. As the clock strikes 1:24 A.M., the figures, dressed in police uniforms, move silently to a side door of a business and knock. These men do not appear threatening or out of place yet they are about to commit one of the greatest art thefts of all time: The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Heist.

Twenty two years have passed since that night and the whereabouts of the stolen works still remain a mystery; works by Vermeer, Rembrandt, Degas, Manet and others with an estimated worth of $500 million. How did this happen? Who was involved? Where are the works now?

On Wednesday, May 16, at 8:00 p.m. Salmagundi Member and Art Cop Charles V. Sabba will shed new light on these questions and others. As Director of Unitel’s Art Loss Recovery Division, Mr. Sabba has been involved with the investigation for some time and has gotten close enough to many of the suspects to even paint their portrait. These portraits as well as other works by Mr. Sabba, will be on view May 13-19 in the Patrons’ Gallery Exhibition, "Charles Sabba’s Visual Investigation into the Isabella Steward Gardner Museum Heist."

Both the lecture and exhibition are open to the public and admission is free.


Charles Sabba's visual investigation into the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Heist,

The art exhibition will

run from May 14 through

May 20, 2012. Opening is on

Tues, May 16

at 6:30 and lecture at

8:00pm. The lecture is on

the robbery that resulted

in the loss of $500 million

worth of art and all of

the suspects, investigators,

reporters, and all the

other players that have

been involved in the invest-

igation over the past 22 yrs.

Please join us at: Salmagundi Club,

47 Fitfth Ave, New York, N.Y. 10003

(212)-255-7740 www.salmagundi.org

Charles Vincent Sabba's art works can be viewed here: http://local-artists.org/users/charles-v-sabba

His art under world visual investigations are documented here: http://www.yourbrushwiththelaw.com/

Vive la Boheme! A scholarly dissertation on Bohemia and Bohemian art and culture from the 1830s until present can be viewed here: http://youngbohemia.blogspot.com/

Sabba's artistic project to change the anatomy of his brain is documented here:

http://the10thguild.blogspot.com/

Stolen Art Watch, Gardner Art, Reality Hightlighted In Bold !!

In this March 21, 1990 file photo, a security guard stands outside the Dutch Room of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, where robbers stole more than a dozen works of art by Rembrandt, Vermeer, Degas, Manet and others, in an early morning robbery. Assistant U.S. Attorney John Durham said Tuesday, March 27, 2012, in federal court in Hartford, Conn., that the FBI believes Connecticut inmate Robert Gentile â??had some involvement in connection with stolen propertyâ?? related to the art heist. Agents have had unproductive discussions about the theft with Gentile, a 75-year-old reputed mobster who is jailed in a drug case.

Feds: Conn. man knows something about stolen art

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2012/03/31/feds_conn_man_knows_something_about_stolen_art/

NEW HAVEN, Conn.—It remains the largest art heist in history, a brazen robbery in which two thieves disguised as police officers walked into Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, disabled two guards and stole masterworks worth more than half a billion dollars.

The 1990 robbery and the recovery of the paintings have puzzled investigators for more than two decades.

Now federal authorities appear to be pinning some hope of solving the mystery on a 75-year-old reputed mobster from Connecticut, Robert Gentile, who is jailed in a drug case.

The FBI believes Robert Gentile "had some involvement in connection with stolen property" related to the art heist, Assistant U.S. Attorney John Durham said in federal court in Hartford this week. Durham said FBI agents have had unproductive discussions with Gentile about the theft, but didn't elaborate on his allegations.

Gentile's attorney, A. Ryan McGuigan, called the notion preposterous. He said Gentile has lived with his wife in the same small house in a Hartford suburb for 50 years and has no idea what prosecutors are talking about.

"He doesn't know anything about art, he's never been to an art gallery in his life, couldn't tell a Rembrandt from an Elvis painting," McGuigan said in an interview.

Durham spoke at a hearing over whether bail should be set for Gentile in the drug case. A judge ordered Gentile to remain held without bail, saying he's too dangerous.

Prosecutors declined to comment further.

Authorities first approached Gentile about the art heist about two years ago, McGuigan said.

"They're not interviewing him about him actually participating in the heist," McGuigan said. "They may or may have not interviewed him about any knowledge that he may have about the whereabouts of the paintings."

When Gentile offered no information, authorities dispatched an undercover witness to buy prescription drugs from him, McGuigan said.

"They set you up and entrap you and throw you in a federal prison at 75 years old until you'll be tortured enough to talk to them about information that you don't have," McGuigan said.

If Gentile were some type of arch-criminal, he would have figured a way to get the $5 million reward offered in the case, McGuigan said.

Gentile, of Manchester, Conn., and associate Anthony Parente, also 75, were charged last month with selling prescription painkillers that were obtained illegally. Federal agents say they found several guns, ammunition, homemade silencers, a blackjack, three sets of handcuffs, a bulletproof vest, a Taser, ammunition, police scanners and brass knuckles at Gentile's home as well as $22,000 at the bottom of a grandfather clock.

Gentile has not been charged in the art heist.

Prosecutors say Gentile is a member of a Philadelphia crime family. His lawyer denies the mob allegation.

The defense says Gentile, who owned an auto repair business, has a larceny conviction but no history of violent crime. His attorney said he is a devoted family man who left school in the ninth grade and now his health is in serious decline, with back and heart troubles and he can barely walk.

The Gardner museum recently marked the 22nd anniversary of the heist in which thieves struck as Boston finished celebrating St. Patrick's Day. They bound and gagged two guards using handcuffs and duct tape in the early hours of March 18. In a little over an hour, they removed masterworks including those by Rembrandt, Vermeer, Degas and Manet, cutting some of the largest pieces from their frames.

The museum continues to offer a $5 million, no-questions-asked reward. Federal prosecutors, who made a renewed push to recover the paintings in 2010, are offering immunity.

Special Agent Geoff Kelly, the FBI's lead investigator on the Gardner Museum heist, would not comment on Gentile, saying the FBI would refer all questions to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Connecticut.

"The FBI has been aggressively investigating the Gardner heist for 22 years," Kelly said. "The investigation is active and ongoing. The Boston office is currently working with our New Haven office and other offices to pursue all viable leads."

Investigators continue to get strong leads, Kelly said.

"Our tenacity in continuing to pursue this investigation is motivated by the cultural significance of the stolen pieces, and our investigation will not stop until the pieces are recovered."

Authorities have pursued numerous leads over the years that have taken them as far as France and Japan, said Ulrich Boser, author of "The Gardner Heist."

"It's really quite remarkable no one has come forward," Boser said, noting the $5 million reward. "This is just this incredible whodunit."

Stolen Art Watch, Gardner Art Nemesis For Gentile

Feds Believe Mobster, 75, Involved In Gardner Art Heist

http://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-gentile-bail-0328-20120327,0,5558962.story

A federal prosecutor acknowledged in court Tuesday that the FBI believes that 75-year-old Hartford mobster Robert Gentile has information about the world's most sensational art heist, the theft of 13 masterworks from Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.

"The government has reason to believe that Mr. Gentile had some involvement with stolen property out of the District of Massachusetts," said Assistant U.S. Attorney John Durham.

What Gentile, reputedly a sworn Mafia member, does or doesn't know about the March 1990 Gardner job surfaced during a hearing in U.S. District Court in Hartford where he tried, unsuccessfully, to bail himself out of jail while waiting for a trial on a drug arrest in February.

Gentile's lawyer, A. Ryan McGuigan, said Gentile knows nothing about the stolen art and that the government is denying "a sick, old man" bail because he can't give them information that could solve one of the world's most baffling crimes.

"What is happening, Your Honor, is that the government is asking you to set a punitive bond, to keep him uncomfortable, to torture him," McGuigan said. "He unfortunately doesn't have the information that the government is looking for. But the government believes he does."

Durham implied that Gentile knows something about the Gardner heist when U.S. District Judge Robert Chatigny pressed the prosecution on the charge that the government is holding Gentile in a Rhode Island prison to squeeze him into giving up information.

Durham added, without elaboration, that Gentile has had unproductive discussions with the FBI about the missing paintings and that the reason the government opposes his release on bond is because of his involvement in a long list of other crimes, among them an aborted conspiracy to hijack cash shipments leaving the Foxwoods casino in Ledyard.

Gentile, short, white-haired, overweight and leaning on a cane, confronted Durham as he limped out of the courtroom during a recess.

"Lies, lies," Gentile said. "It's all lies."

The Gardner job devastated the art world, and the inability of investigators around the world to find even a hint of the stolen paintings has become an enduring mystery.

Among the pieces stolen were three Rembrandts, a Vermeer, a Manet and five drawings by Degas. Two of the paintings — "Storm on the Sea of Galilee," Rembrandt's only known seascape, and Vermeer's "The Concert" — could be worth than more $50 million each in an open market. All the stolen pieces might be worth $50 million or more.

At least two thieves were involved in the theft. They dressed as police officers and used the uniforms to trick one of two museum guards into opening a door at about 1:30 a.m., the end of St. Patrick's Day celebrations in Boston.

The thieves bound the guards with duct tape and, less than 90 minutes later, drove away into the night in a red car. There has been one lead in 22 years, according to the museum. It went nowhere.

Gentile, who lives in Manchester, has been a player in the Connecticut rackets for years, according to police and other sources. He has an arrest record dating to the 1950s, mostly on minor state charges. He served a six-month sentence, once.

Associates believe that if Gentile had even the faintest idea of the location of the paintings, he would have tried to trade it for the $5 million reward years ago.

His most recent arrest, last month, was for selling illegally obtained prescription painkillers. He claims he was using the pills personally for his myriad medical conditions. He was charged with a partner, Anthony Parente, another 75-year-old local underworld figure.

The intensive law enforcement investigation following the Gardner job revealed, according to recently obtained FBI investigative reports, that Gentile was actively involved with a crew of Boston hoodlums in the years immediately after the art theft.

Durham said Gentile was associated with a crew active in Boston and led by Capo Robert Luisi, but associated with Philadelphia's mafia family. It was Luisi who "made" Gentile by inducting him into the Philadelphia family, Durham said in court Tuesday.

When Luisi was arrested and confronted with a long prison sentence for selling cocaine about a decade ago, he implicated Gentile and other alleged members of his crew in a long list of criminal activity, Durham said.

In 1998, Gentile established an elaborate surveillance of the armored cars that he believed were transporting cash from the Foxwoods Resort Casino. Gentile plotted the truck routes and the frequency of pickups, Durham said.

In Gentile's basement, Durham said, FBI agents found police identification materials, uniforms, Tasers and police scanners — devices that criminal gangs often use in armored-car robberies. There also were weapons and ammunition.

In about 2000, Durham said, Gentile approached Luisi about hitting an armored car in Ledyard. Luisi recruited a gang of Boston bank robbers to work with Gentile on surveillance. The Ledyard robbery fizzled when the Boston crew was nabbed in another robbery, Durham said.

Durham said Luisi said Gentile also claimed to have been involved in truck hijackings. For a while, Luisi said, Gentile carried a snub-nosed .38-caliber pistol and a .22-caliber derringer and acted as his bodyguard. Another time, Durham said, Gentile boasted that he would kill Hartford gangster Tony Volpe if Volpe threatened his loan-sharking business.

McGuigan called the allegations lies by gangsters trying to curry favor with the FBI and shorten their own prison sentences.

Chatigny said Gentile was too dangerous to be granted bail.

Stolen Art Watch, Have Information On Gardner Art Heist, 2012, This is What Awaits, Arrest & Indictment, Official

Mobster Suspected Of Knowing About Art Heist Indicted On Drug Charges

Federal Authorities Believe Robert Gentile, Of Manchester, Knows Whereabouts Of Paintings Taken In 1990 Museum Theft

http://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-gentile-mob-0228-20120227,0,1365801.story

Federal prosecutors signaled Monday that they may try to confiscate mobster Robert Gentile's Manchester home after indicting him and a partner for the illegal sale of prescription painkillers.

Outside of a forfeiture allegation directed at Gentile's suburban ranch and $22,000 in cash hidden in a grandfather clock, the indictment made public Monday by federal prosecutors appears to formalize the drug charges on which Gentile and partner Andrew Parente were arrested earlier in the month.

The Feb. 10 arrest of Gentile, 75, created a stir in legal circles because of the relatively small amount of illegal narcotics involved in the alleged sales and because law enforcement authorities suspect he may have information concerning the spectacular 1990 theft of hundreds of millions of dollars of paintings from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston.

Three Rembrandts, a Vermeer, a Manet and five drawings by Degas were among the works that vanished in the Gardner heist — the biggest art theft ever and, nearly 22 years later, one of the most baffling. Investigators assigned to the unsolved heist have encountered nothing but dead ends.

Two of the stolen paintings — "Storm on the Sea of Galilee," Rembrandt's only known seascape, and Vermeer's "The Concert" — could be worth than $50 million each in an open market. All the stolen artworks might be worth $300 million or more. But because of the notoriety of the missing pieces, any kind of sale would be difficult, if not impossible, to arrange.

Gentile, a made or sworn member of the Mafia, has repeatedly denied having knowledge of the theft or of the location of the paintings, according to sources. He is known to have associated with crime figures in Boston but was inducted into the Mafia through a faction of the Genovese crime family in Philadelphia, according to a variety of sources.

Documents detailing the drug charges against Gentile and Parente remained sealed to the public Monday. The six-count indictment made public by the U.S. Attorney's office accuses the two men of conspiring to possess and distribute prescription painkillers such as oxycodone. Parente, who lives in Hartford, has been a suspect in drug sales for decades, police sources said.

Parente is named in two counts of the indictment, charged with conspiracy to sell drugs and the sale of oxycodone in November. Gentile is named in all six counts related to drug sales.

All but one of the drug offenses allegedly took place in October and November.

Gentile was charged with a drug offense on Feb. 10, the date FBI agents discovered a relatively small amount of apparently illegally obtained pain medication during a search of his home. But the same search turned up what a federal judge called a "veritable arsenal" of weapons, including guns and silencers. The $22,000 in cash was found hidden with a set of brass knuckles.

A federal judge characterized Gentile as dangerous, based on an inventory of the search, and ordered him held without bail.

It is a crime for a convicted felon, such as Gentile, to possess weapons. He has not been charged with weapons offenses, according to the U.S. Attorney's office.

The forfeiture count in the indictment applies only to Gentile. It seeks to allow the government to confiscate property or money attributed to criminal activity. The forfeiture specifically lists Gentile's home and cash discovered during the search of his home.

Art Hostage Comments:

Like most things surrounding the infamous Gardner Art Heist of 1990, this latest estimation of the value of two stolen Gardner artworks, Rembrandt's Storm on the Sea and Vermeer's The Concert is way off the true value.

Proof being the price of $250 million paid recently by the Qatar Royal family for a version of Paul Cezanne's "Card Players", meaning the Gardner Museum's Vermeer has to be worth much more, or at the very least on par, $250 million. Same with the Rembrandt Storm on the Sea, his only seascape, again $250 million would be a reasonable estimate.

Paul Cezanne Card Players Sold: http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2012/02/qatar-buys-cezanne-card-players-201202

To further show just how undervalued the Gardner Museum's missing Rembrandt and Vermeer are we only need to look at the estimate for a version of the Edmund Munch "Scream" being offered for sale at Sotheby's later this year, which carries an estimate of $80 million.

Scream For Sale: http://www.antiquestradegazette.com/news/8154.aspx

As to Robert Gentile, well he has got what William Youngworth got back in the 1990's when he offered to recover the Gardner Art.

The FBI over-egging relatively minor charges to put pressure on.

William Youngworth served three years plus in jail without breaking.

Robert Gentile can expect the same treatment and because of his advancing years the likelihood is he will die in jail, not because of the possession of painkillers, but the allegations of him having knowledge about the Gardner Art Heist and the current whereabouts of the art.

So, for anyone who may have information about the Gardner art heist, this is what awaits, this is the reality, no if's, not buts, no deals.

Stolen Art Watch, Gardner Art Heist, No Mercy, 22 Years On, The FBI Bulldozer Keeps Rolling

Bobby Gentile's self-built Manchester Home

Can A Mobster Solve Art Heist?

FBI Agents Think Robert Gentile May Have Information About 1990 Boston Theft

HARTFORD —— http://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-gentile-0219-20120218,0,2885882,full.story

In court last week, his handcuffs off and his 250-plus pounds settled on a hard, wooden chair, wiseguy Robert Gentile turned to his wife and children in the gallery and complained.

"No razor," the 75-year old Gentile whispered, scraping at his jaw with an imaginary razor. "No shave. No shower. No nothing."

He had been locked up on drug and gun charges for four days, since Feb. 10, when FBI agents charged him and an associate with selling prescription painkillers.

When agents searched his house and a backyard shed, they found everything from pistols and silencers to two, 6-foot elephant tusks.

The weaponry alone constituted a "veritable arsenal," a federal judge said.

But, arsenal aside, law enforcement interest in Gentile appears to lie elsewhere: The FBI suspects the old-school Hartford hustler could have inside information about the world's biggest, most baffling art mystery — the theft on March 18, 1990, of 13 masterworks from Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.

Three Rembrandts, a Vermeer, a Manet and five drawings by Degas vanished. Two of the paintings — "Storm on the Sea of Galilee," Rembrandt's only known seascape, and Vermeer's "The Concert," each could be worth than $50 million in an open market. All the stolen pieces might be worth $300 million or more.

The circumstances of the arrest have started speculation that the drug case is an effort to leverage Gentile to talk about the Gardner job, if he has anything to talk about.

"I can't say that's what the criminal case is about," Richard S. Cramer, Gentile's court-appointed lawyer, said last week. "But I think its going to be a factor in the mind of the government."

It is not likely that the paintings will have any firm value placed on them any time soon. Pressure by police agencies around the world to resolve the world's highest profile art case makes a public sale an impossibility. That has created one of the big mysteries associated with the Gardner theft: What happened to the art?

At least two thieves were involved in the theft. They dressed as police officers and used the uniforms to trick one of two museum guards into opening a door at about 1:30 a.m., the end of St. Patrick's Day, when celebrations around Boston were winding down.

The Gardner, a century-old, Italianate mansion, was protected by an outdated security system. The thieves bound the guards with duct tape and, fewer than 90 minutes later, drove away into the night in a red car. There has been one lead with any promise over 22 years, according to the museum. It went nowhere.

Police investigators say Gentile has been a player for decades in Hartford-area organized crime, a fraternity thinned to near oblivion over the past 20 years by the FBI, competition from legal gambling casinos, shifting demographics and old age.

Gentile, however, survived. A federal prosecutor described him in court last week as a sworn member of a Philadelphia-based organized crime group. Another source said Gentile was "made" by the Gambino crime family organization in Philadelphia in the late 1990s, through contacts Gentile made in Boston. It was in Boston that Gentile came to the attention of the Gardner investigators.

Gentile claims to have worked for years, with little success, in the used car business. But an investigator said that, whatever Gentile does, it pays enough to keep his family in a comfortable house in a comfortable suburb. He has largely avoided publicity, with a few exceptions. There was one incident, in 1994, when he was charged with larceny and accused of cheating his siblings out of their father's estate.

His latest arrest began as a minor matter. He and a partner, Andrew Parente, are accused of selling fraudulently obtained prescription pain pills. During the search of Gentile's home, the FBI found only about 80 pills.

It was the other stuff the FBI found — the guns, bullets, explosives, a bullet-proof vest, a sap, $20,000 stuffed in a grandfather clock with a set of brass knuckles — that raised the profile of the case and Gentile's criminal liability. It is a crime for a convicted felon, as Gentile is, to own many of the items found in his home. In some cases, convictions can carry a mandatory prison sentence.

Gentile's friends suggest that the FBI is using a "nickel and dime" drug case as leverage to make an overweight senior citizen with a bad heart and bad back give up, once and for all, whatever he might know about the Gardner job. And the claims he has nothing to give.

"They're putting the squeeze on him so he'll open up on other things," said Parente, arrested with Gentile recently. "They mentioned it, about the pictures, when they picked me up and took me down to the federal joint. I don't know nothing about no pictures."

Parente was released on bond after his arrest, unlike Gentile, who was held in jail when a judge said the search of his house revealed a "propensity toward violence."

Parente said that FBI agents have been trying to question Gentile about the Gardner for years and that Gentile has been denying knowledge of the theft for just as long. There is a $5 million reward and a promise of no prosecution for anyone who helps recover the paintings.

"He told me they offered him $5 million," Parente said. "I don't know if that's true. But that would be a hard thing to turn down, wouldn't it?"

"He don't know where they are," Parente said of the stolen artworks. "Bobby lives a quiet life. He doesn't drive a brand new car. He's got a home that's been paid for for years, that he built. They are really, really exaggerating this. And this bust is more exaggeration than anything. I'm 75 years old and I took a pinch because of it. It's ridiculous."

An FBI spokesman said the bureau "does not comment on pending investigative matters."

But retired investigators said last week that organized crime informants in Hartford were talking about the Gardner job soon after it took place and, on at least one occasion, they dropped Gentile's name. An informant reported in 1990 that someone from Hartford was connected to the art theft. By 1993, another informant had mentioned Gentile specifically.

In 2010, the FBI tried to question Gentile after learning he had become friendly, years earlier, with a Boston-area man named Robert Guarente. Guarente was associated with a crew of gangsters who met at an auto repair shop in Dorchester owned by Carmello Merlino. Merlino, who was seen frequently with a capo in the Patriarca crime family, is a suspect in the Gardner theft.

According to two sources, Gardner investigators became interested in events that occurred before Guarente's death in 2004, including that Guarente moved to Maine. The FBI got a tip that one or more of the paintings may have been hidden in Maine, perhaps by Guarente. Gentile visited Guarente in Maine. When the investigators later looked for paintings in Maine, they found none.

Gentile has admitted knowing Guarente, the two sources said. But they said he insists that, whatever he knows about stolen paintings, he learned from the newspaper.

"He's been going back and forth to a grand jury and stuff like that," Parente said. "But he doesn't know nothing about no paintings."

Cramer, Gentile's lawyer, said the "government is wasting its time going after a sick, debilitated old man on the mistaken belief that he has millions of dollars in paintings."

"They offered him $5 million" Cramer said. "He would love $5 million. He doesn't know. Can't help. But they are not going to give up."

Double-click for full screen

Stolen Art Watch, Gardner Art Held (Art) Hostage In Safe Deposit Box

Art Hostage has heard whisper's from several quarters that some Gardner art is being held in a Safety Deposit box, therefore protecting it from the elements.

Access to this box is the problem that remains to be overcome.

More to follow.........................

Stolen Art Watch, Gardner Art Heist, Dam (Wall) Of Silence About to Burst Open, Exclusive !!

Gardner Art Heist Dam About To Break !!

Art Hostage has been informed by a source close to the Gardner Art Heist Investigation there has been a break in Gardner Heist investigation and this may see some art presented to the media to coincide with the 22nd anniversary on March 18th 2012.

However, the news may leak before then and also there might be some arrests, contrary to the deal negotiated.

The ongoing negotiations have been delicate, to say the least, so Art Hostage will leave it here for now to give every possible chance for some Gardner art to come home.

more to follow..................

Stolen Art Watch, Charles Vincent Sabba Sheds New Light on Gardner Art Heist

Gardner Bullets IV: Simmons College Robbery

This is a small excerpt of a much longer Your Brush With The Law exclusive interview that will be posted here in March for the anniversary of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum robbery. This interview with William Youngworth III is going to reveal never before discussed details of the robbery and shed light onto the case.

CVS: Please shed light on the Simmons College robbery that occurred right across the street from the Gardner Museum eight years prior (1982) to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum robbery.

WY: Well, that night was our first trip into the Gardner Museum, our second was in like 1986 or 87. My god, its all such ancient history now. First I would like to address this criminal attachment to my name. In 1977 I was given a 13 year prison sentence for something I was cold blooded innocent of. I was identified as a get away driver in an armed robbery that I did not do...........

CVS: You weren't doing anything illegal back then?

WY: I wouldn’t go that far, but in my world back then it was then as legal as I could make it. I was working with a close friend making fake I.D.’s. My friend was a genius at photography. We were making licenses for Joe McDonald’s crew who used them in a horse racing fixing racket around the country. It all came tumbling down right about then.

We got $500 a piece for our I.D. kit which were so good that they could take a call from a cop if someone got pulled over. We had made our equipment portable. We were using the same equipment Massachusetts DMV’s were using. We would rent hotel rooms never in the same place twice, call Joe’s guys and tell them where to come. We would make ten I.D. kits per session, collect our $5,000 and be gone. We did it a few times per week and making good money for back then....

CVS: So how did you end up in the Gardner Museum?

WY: We first were walked through and shown the Gardner and we cased the museum a second time in 1986. Some guy that wasn’t in our crew got our ID cameras busted in a drug raid. He had been dealing coke right under our noses, which put our operation in jeapordy. He met this girl in a bar and brings her back to our safe house. One thing led to another, she saw too much, went to the cops and we lose all our equipment. During this same week we had a major ID order to fill. My other friend is this super connected guy in Boston and he put the world out we need Polariod 707 ID cameras and will pay $10,000 each for them. In less then two days we had a lead on some. They were in Simmons College in Boston.

CVS: The Simmons College robbery isn’t that widely known is it?

WY: I did let it out when I was pleading with the Gardner to act fast because I was losing my toe hold on my ability to assist them without it becoming drastically more complicated. They didn’t listen. But your right it was basically brushed aside. Funny, I’ve never had to prove how guilty I was before! Each time we looked at the Gardner Museum, we were cautioned that some of the frames were very possibly wired into the alarms. There were a lot of unknowns we were waiting for answers on. Before those answers came I had gotten picked up on an old charge.

CVS: For our readers that don’t know Boston, or haven’t been to the Gardner Museum, Simmons College and the Gardner are directly across a small street from one another.

WY: Anyway, my friend’s contact was the night time guard of the Simmons. Since the plan would give us the control over the entire college we cleaned out their Audio Visual lab and got our hands on equipment we had been wanting to lay our hands on for years.

CVS: This gets a little hard to ignore. Please tell us how Simmons was robbed.

WY: Sure. The exact same way the Gardner Museum was in 1990. It was knock, knock, "open up it’s the police". "Were here over a distress call we received". It took four of us, including the guard about four hours to clean the place out. We had a connection that ran a large commercial division of a rental truck company and had to get the truck back by 6:30AM before the day shift showed up at 7:00AM. This was our first tour of the Gardner. Our guard and their’s were both musicans and social buddies. Truthfully I never knew about the place and it was the Simmons guard who turned us on to the score. We got in there that night after we got done at Simmons. We put a look out up the street and he gave us the all clear for us to take the truck from around back of Simmon’s loading dock, a few hundred feet down Palace Road and around the block re-connecting to Huntintgon Ave.

CVS: What was the guard’s story who was involved? And you know I need to ask about your first trip into the Gardner.

WY: Certainly we’ll get back to that but his statement was that uniformed Boston Police Officers had handcuffed him, took him down into a basement stairwell and re-handcuffed him to a railing.

CVS: I have done some checking into this. Simmons has no comment about this, the Boston Police have such a brief report that’s it ridiculous and two paintings in the Dean’s office were cut from their frames.

WY: I actually believe that the original report was much more detailed. Actually I am certain of it. Our guard brought us a copy. We were actually using it as an information on the items we ended up selling and didn’t need. And your information about two paintings being cut from their frames is 100% correct. When our guard saw my friends ’passion’ for art he told us all about what was right next door.

CVS: You cut paintings from the frames?

WY: Heavens no! When I saw what he did I was very upset. These really weren’t that big a deal paintings. They weren’t worth much. Just two nice late 19th Century portraits of old faculty members. They were portraits of men and this is a women’s college. I recoiled when I saw what he had done. He didn’t really care and simply rolled them up. You know what, in re-telling that story I recall I never knew what happened to those paintings.

CVS: So let me get this straight. Right across the street from the Gardner, where eight years later a $500 million robbery occurs 100 feet away where the guard says he was summoned to the door by persons claiming to be police, the police over power the guard, hand cuff him in a basement, take control of the place and cut paintings out of frames...and that wasn’t a clue to investigators?

WY: That is correct.

For the rest of this exert please visit: http://www.yourbrushwiththelaw.com/intro.htm Roll Call

Rembrandt; oil on canvas; 2010; detail of larger canvas by Charles Sabba

Van Rijn; oil on canvas; 2010; detail of larger canvas by Charles Sabba

Storm on Sea of Galilee; Rembrandt Van Rijn; Stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.

Gardner Bullets V: A Sealed Case

Lets talk seriously now, and after over twenty years I think serious discussion is overdue since many of the principles have passed away, and if the few who are left go as well, they may take the secrets the possess with them, such as where the stolen art is (and we do believe the authorities know everything except WHERE the thirteen stolen items ended up). Seriously, the Gardner Museum security at the time of the robbery was a joke, so the museum administration and board members need to be held accountable and owe something to the American art loving people. They can rectify their negligence in the protection of our national treasures by taking drastic actions to recover the stolen art works. The head of security at the time of the robbery was incompetent and the guards were broken down valises who knew nothing about museum security. Why did these guards get off the hook so easy? Burnout musicians who opened the door to the museum even though the museum's policy clearly stated that they should never open the door for anyone. The Gardner guards allowed the robbers in and, after being duct taped up and secured to pipes in the basement, slept comfortably. Does a reasonable citizen relax enough to fall asleep into sweet dream land in this kind of situation while going through this kind of horrible ordeal? Then, after being discovered and liberated, these guards gave ridiculous descriptions to the police which culminated in those terrible composite sketches.

Two composite sketches of suspects: After Neville BPD; fingerprint ink on fingerprint card; Charles Sabba

Please recall (and refer to Gardner Bullets IV) that the Simmon's College guard was completely in on the 1982 robbery. Supposedly, the people who planned the Gardner heist never knew about the place until the Simmons guard turned them on to the score back in 1982, when he was covering for his pal at the Gardner Museum (the guard at the Gardner, a musician, was at a gig and the Simmon's guard was making his rounds).

It appears that the authorities are protecting these guards. The Gardner guard has never caught any public heat. These kids were no criminal masterminds, they could have never withstood the heat that they should have had to endure. I am positive they were pissing their pants in fear, being stuck between very dangerous underworld figures and the authorities/possible legal troubles. Please note the one little blurb in Tom Mashberg's & Anthony Amore's book about stolen Rembrandts that in Museum robberies it is usually an employee that is involved with thefts. There is usually an inside connection (and most museum security experts agree).

Where are they now? The Simmons guard died in the motor cycle accident. One of the Gardner guards supposedly died in France. One of the Gardner guards lived right around the corner from one of your William Youngworth's Allston antique stores at the time of the robbery. He allegedly was assaulted (reported recently in the Boston media) in front of the Allston antiques store. I personally would like to find and question all of the guards.

CVS: Why did Mashberg write about the guard living around the corner from the store on the twentieth anniversary of the heist?

WY: Who knows. Maybe its true. I didn’t know the guy. I vividly recall the argument I got into with Mashberg that started his attacking me the very next day. He probably printed the story to bait me into saying something about it. That was not so much a robbery as a gimme (staged robbery). I never saw two security guards on duty at anytime. That’s not to say there wasn’t but the security was a joke. In 1986 my friend had his own relationship going with a Gardner night security guard. The Gardner was just another score in the 80’s. In 86 we were just waiting for some security information. ...

CVS: During the negotiations with the Gardner Admin and the authorities, negotiations that eventually failed, did the authorities ask you to describe any of the circumstances of the theft? How about the condition of of the paintings? Did they ask to describe the backs, edges or under where the frame would hide?

WY: In the initial part of the negotiations they wanted me to describe things about the backs of the paintings I just did not know. They asked me about identification aspects that at the time I really never had a reason to note. They expected me to leave and go find those answers under intense surveillance. They obviously wanted me to access the package and lead them right to it. Now, many years later, as I understood it there was a Bernard Berenson tag on the piece and there were seals, or labels, that went between the stretcher bars and the canvas. The paintings were broken out of their frames and the seals were broken in the process.

These seals are designed to be like a seal indicating the actual artworks were original to the frames of that institution. Many museum collections do this. Its sort of a security/integrity feature ensuring the art work hadn’t been moneyed around with.

Read the full exerts at http://www.yourbrushwiththelaw.com/intro.htm

Coming soon Gardner Bullets Six and Seven

http://www.yourbrushwiththelaw.com/intro.htm

http://www.yourbrushwiththelaw.com/intro.htm

Stolen Art Watch,Gardner Extention , "It's a Kind of Vast Municipal Fire Station A Monstrous Carbuncle on the Face of a Much-Loved and Elegant Friend"

Museum renaissance

Gardner to unveil grand new wing at reopening

In her will Isabella Stewart Gardner (1840-1924) stipulated that her museum, which she founded in 1903 and where she idiosyncratically installed her collection of fine and decorative art, remain largely unaltered. A copper-clad, four-storey-high building where a coach house formerly stood was never part of her vision, but this 70,000 sq. ft extension has been added to the museum that bears her name. Due to open on 19 January, the wing has been designed by the Pritzker Prize-winning Italian architect Renzo Piano and has cost $118m.

Anne Hawley, the museum’s director, says that her trustees decided to expand six years ago mainly because attendance had reached 200,000 visitors a year. The pressure on the building and the collection was too great, Hawley says, and limited space curtailed events and activities. When Gardner was alive, only 2,000 people enjoyed her recreation of a 15th-century Venetian palazzo, filled with paintings, tapestries, furniture, manuscripts and textiles, complemented by concerts in its music room.

Piano’s solution is a modern building that is not as tall and stands 50ft from the original museum. He compares the relationship between the buildings to that of “the great nephew to the great grand aunt”, says Hawley. Old and new buildings are linked by a glazed passage. The extension houses a 300-seat auditorium, a 2,000 sq. ft exhibition space, a café, conservation labs and staff offices. It also provides a new, larger entrance.

Building the extension has been controversial, not least because Gardner designed the carriage house, which was demolished in July 2009. The Boston Globe revealed in May 2009 that concerned members of staff felt Hawley was suppressing debate over the building’s historical significance. The newspaper cited an essay by former curatorial fellow Robert Colby, in which he describes how the carriage house held symbolic value for Gardner. Hawley responded to objectors by saying the carriage house was “never part of the visitor experience” and was not protected by Gardner’s will.

The carriage house had been used to accommodate visiting artists, a function catered for in Piano’s extension, which includes two artists’ apartments. The museum’s board of trustees unanimously voted for the demolition and the city and the state’s preservation agencies, including the Boston Landmarks Commis­sion and the Massachusetts Historic Commission, did not object. The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts ruled the demolition “in the public interest” because the museum’s plans for an extension would “extend the life of the [original] building” and fulfil Gardner’s will to establish a museum “for the education and enjoyment of the public forever”.

“For the first time we will have a real exhibition space to focus on certain objects in our collection,” says Oliver Tostmann, the museum’s research fellow, who is due to become the collection’s curator in April. He plans to select one or two objects from the collection each year and show them alongside objects from other institutions in the new space. The opening exhibitions will commemorate the 20th anniversary of the museum’s artist-in-residence programme.

Gardner was able to build a museum for her growing art collection when she inherited $2.1m from her father in 1891. He made his wealth in the Irish linen trade and later in mining investments. Gardner’s peers—and rivals for work by Titian, Botticelli and Michelangelo—included the likes of JP Morgan, Henry Clay Frick and Andrew Mellon, or the “squillionaires”, as she called them. “I’ve got the picture habit. It’s as bad as the whisky habit,” she confessed in 1896.

This isn’t your grandma’s Gardner.

Boston’s beloved Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum reopens next week with a design update and double the size, thanks to a new 70,000-square-foot wing, designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano.

“You can keep the life and beauty there, but you can tell a new story,” said Piano, who sat for an -interview in the new wing’s Living Room.

The sleek addition, connected by what Piano calls an “umbilical cord,” is four stories of glass and copper, and even the fire escapes are aesthetically pleasing. The museum opens to the public Jan. 19, with three community days of free admission.

Restoration of the Palace
Since 1990, the Gardner Museum has completed significant restoration work on the historic palace building to stabilize its structure and help accommodate increased programming and attendance. Projects have included replacing the skylight over the courtyard with thermal pane glass and installing a climate-control system. Construction of the extension complements preservation work that is ongoing within the historic building, including a decade-long lighting project to protect sensitive artwork and improve the visitor experience.

A centerpiece of the Museum preservation project is the Tapestry Room, which has been restored to its original glory after being used for 85 years as a temporary concert hall. As the Museum’s world-class concerts will now take place in the new wing’s Calderwood Hall, the Tapestry Room has been returned to its former configuration to be experienced as a grand tapestry hall. Conservation treatment of the space included the cleaning of its Mercer-tiled floors, restoration of the French medieval stone fireplace, reinstallation of select art and furniture objects, replacement of historic textiles with reproductions, and new lighting.

Art Hostage Comments:

Restoration of the Palace started in 1990, h.mmm, same time as the Gardner Art Heist ???

Of course we have been told from the get go the stolen artworks were not insured, h,mmmm ????

Then of course twenty years after the Gardner Art Heist $180 million is raised for this new extension, h,mmmm.

Again, of course we have been told the stolen Gardner artworks were not insured, h.mmmm ??????

The cost of the new extension is reputed to be around $118 million, h,mmmm, $62 million left in the pot, h,mmm.

Could the existing reward offer of $5 million for the recovery of ALL the stolen Gardner art "in good condition" be diverted from the left over $62 million to an escrow account and that news made public to tempt those who may hold the stolen Gardner art to come forward to collect the $5 million ?????

In light of the fact the $5 million reward offer was made all the way back in 1997 and the value of the stolen Gardner artworks have increased two three fold, increase the reward offer to $10 million and put it in an escrow account to show a sign of good faith and the willingness of the Gardner Museum to appear sincere ??????????? Would still leave $52 million in the pot.

In support of the doubling of the reward to $10 million and putting that into an escrow account, Could the FBI and Assistant DA Brian Kelly issue a complete immunity for those who recover the stolen Gardner Art and just focus on recovering the iconic Vermeer The Concert, Rembrandt's Storm On The Sea etc ???????

This would lead to the certain recovery of the Stolen Gardner Art and confirm the art is all that matters, as the public has been told numerous times by both Law Enforcement and the Gardner Museum.

Upon another note the Tapestry Room looks wonderful and bears testament to the legacy of Isabella Stewart Gardner.

However, the New Wing looks like "a monstrous carbuncle on the face of a much-loved and elegant friend" to quote Prince Charles.

Stolen Art Watch, Dr No Hans Heinrich "Heini" Thyssen-Bornemisz’s Collection Returns Stolen Art, Sadly Not Gardner Art

Hans Heinrich "Heini" Thyssen-Bornemisz’s Stolen & Looted Art Collection

http://universe.byu.edu/index.php/2012/01/10/police-beat-9/

Jan. 5 – Somewhere between 1970-1985, a piece of art valued at $218,000 was stolen from BYU campus. After being stolen the “Silver Chalice” was sold between a number of different art dealers before finally landing in Switzerland with Count Thyssen-Bornemisz’s collection. BYU negotiated with Thyssen-Bornemisz’s estate and the piece of art was returned to BYU.

Art Hostage Comments:

Alex Boyle, in an exclusive Art Hostage interview last summer, makes the connection between the Gardner Art Heist and the end destination for some of the elusive Gardner art being the Hans Heinrich "Heini" Thyssen-Bornemisz’s Stolen & Looted Art Collection:

http://stolenvermeer.blogspot.com/2011/07/stolen-art-watch-gardner-art-heist-alex.html

Stolen Art Watch, Gardner Art, The Man Who Can, Patrick Nee

The Man Who Can Recover Some Gardner Art






Art Hostage Comments:

Give this man, Patrick Nee, blanket immunity from prosecution and a cast iron guarantee he will not have to testify against or reveal any sources, then the Gardner Art will surely be on its way home.

The small matter of the reward offer can be resolved by placing the $5 million in an Escrow account to show good faith and once the Gardner art is recovered then the payout is made.

Patrick Nee was not involved in the actual Gardner Art Heist or subsequent handling of the Gardner art, an honest broker who commands respect right across both the criminal and Law Enforcement Underworld.

Stolen Art Watch, FBI Agent Geoff Kelly Reveals, Gardner Case, Not An Inch, No Deals, No Reward,

Kelly's Heroes

DUXBURY —

The Duxbury Free Library begins the New Year with an old unsolved crime. At 2 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 8, the Sunday Salon Series will present FBI Special Agent Geoff Kelly, who will discuss the infamous art heist from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. In March of 1990, 13 priceless works, including art by Rembrandt, Vermeer and Degas, were stolen from the museum. Twenty-two years later the art has not surfaced. Agent Kelly will share information about the heist and appeal to the public for information.

“The theft captured the public’s imagination because it was daring,” Kelly said. “But in the end, it’s still a theft, and the criminals need to be held accountable.”

To reserve your ticket, call the library now, at 781-934-2721, ext. 108.

Read more: Sunday Salon Series - Duxbury, MA - Wicked Local Duxbury http://www.wickedlocal.com/duxbury/fun/entertainment/arts/x1282423687/Sunday-Salon-Series#ixzz1hkTsOzP5

Art Hostage Comments:
Finally, Geoff Kelly reveals how the FBI want those who have information about the Gardner heist and subsequent handling of the art "held accountable"

Meaning, anyone who can provide information about the whereabouts of the Gardner art must be forthcoming and provide everything they know abut those who handle the Gardner art and also, vitally, must be prepared to testify to that extent to a Grand Jury and Trial jury.

Furthermore they will loose their fifth amendment rights and have the FBI comb all over their life so to check if there is any criminality lurking in the background that could be used against them at a further date.

Turning to the alleged reward offer of $5 million for the recovery of ALL the Gardner art IN GOOD CONDITION.

The offer speaks for itself, "all the Gardner art in good condition" subjective at best, dishonest at worse. We all know the Gardner art was ripped from their frames therefore some damage occurred at the time of the theft, let alone the intervening years being stored within the depths of the Underworld. A get-out clause for the Gardner Museum.

Notice anytime the reward offer is made in public the words "all of the Gardner art in good condition" are stated very clearly !!

Another consideration for anyone with information about the Gardner art whereabouts, there is no way on earth the Gardner Museum would pay one single dime without express approval of the FBI and the FBI will never approve any payment for the Gardner art without bodies, arrests and convictions.

Truth is the same as back in 1990, the Gardner art is stolen property and anyone with information is required to reveal all or face charges of withholding information and obstructing justice.

Any reward is subject to the discretion of the Gardner Museum and is non-negotiable.

Upon another note, it is alleged Whitey Bulger and Mark Rossetti have been offering their own insight into the Gardner case and this had led to the raiding of Anthony "Chucky" Carlo, plus ongoing inquiry's.

Stolen Art Watch, Gardner Art Heist, Flip The Investigation To Recover The Art

"Frank and Jamie", installation/sculpture, 2002, by Maurizio Cattelan.

A new icon of subversion.
This sculpture is both an inverted image of power and a statement about the seduction of authority.

Over 20 years later, still pained by void where work of art should hang

http://bostonglobe.com/opinion/letters/2011/12/21/over-years-later-still-pained-void-where-work-art-should-hang/oxAmnZScTq5S3O795z90YP/story.html

TO THOSE who have the painting:

March 18, 1990, more than 20 years ago, my heart cried out: “The Storm on the Sea of Galilee’’ had been stolen along with a number of other valuable pieces of art. Twenty years later, my heart still cries out.

I had been fortunate. I had gazed upon the painting and pondered its meaning. Rembrandt urges us to consider taking a stormy sail with the apostles and Christ upon the sea of life. Rembrandt himself, who is believed to have depicted his image gazing out to us from the ship, invites us on board. The artist represents us, humanity with Christ.

After the heist, when I visited the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, I saw the blank spot and cried. My son and daughter, having never seen the painting, will never be blessed with the experience that only the original can provide. Countless others are being deprived of Rembrandt’s wish to inspire us.

Twenty years. It has been long enough. To those who have the painting, I say: Be good and return the piece; the world needs it. You will be forgiven; it is Christmastime. No questions asked. You have had this artwork long enough. Just send it.

P. Nelson

http://www.yourbrushwiththelaw.com/intro.htm

The Honorable Charles Vincent Sabba Reflects On The Gardner Art Heist Recovery Process

http://www.yourbrushwiththelaw.com/intro.htm

Gardner Bullets I: An Introduction

"Killer Bee"; 2006; 45 Cal target round, acrylic paint and fabric wings; by Charles Sabba.

http://www.yourbrushwiththelaw.com/intro.htm

Gardner Bullets II: Concealing and Receiving

It is a ten-year felony to conceal or receive any of the stolen Gardner Museum artworks:

http://www.yourbrushwiththelaw.com/intro.htm

The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum door that the thieves entered on Palace Road on 18 March 1990.

United States Attorney for the District of Massachusetts Carmen M. Ortiz.

http://www.yourbrushwiththelaw.com/intro.htm

Gardner Bullets III: Is an offer of immunity on the table?

http://www.yourbrushwiththelaw.com/intro.htm

Portrait of a stool Pigeon; oil on canvas; by Charles Sabba.

http://www.yourbrushwiththelaw.com/intro.htm

Check out "The Wire" over on "Your Brush With The Law" for the Charles Vincent Sabba Art Crime lectures, news, interviews and video's relating to art crime and the Gardner Art Heist:
http://www.yourbrushwiththelaw.com/intro.htm