The Irish Republican Army Holds The Key to America’s Most Famous Art Heist, Claims PI
The Gardner's security chief tells artnet News otherwise.
“I’m 100 percent sure that they are in Ireland. Hundred percent sure. No doubt in my mind,” Brand told interviewer Seth Doane.
He says he has “leads” that point him to the current whereabouts of the masterpieces, taken 27 years ago during a nighttime heist at the Isabella Stewart Gardner museum in Boston. And these leads point him to the Irish Republican Army, or IRA.
“We have had talks with… former members of the IRA—and after a few Guinnesses, after a few talks—you can see in their eyes that they know more,” Brand claims.
The FBI and Gardner security director Anthony Amore reportedly still believe the paintings are in the US.
artnet News reached out to Amore following the most recent round of headlines. In an email this morning, Amore said: “We have explored all of the angles Arthur has mentioned many years ago, to their natural conclusion. Today, there is not one scintilla of evidence pointing to Ireland or the IRA. If Arthur has some new to share, I am always happy to listen.”
2 comments:
The look in someone's eye - even after a beer -- is not sound evidence.
Note that there's a new story in Hartford Courant that is worth posting for background.
I don’t think it’s right for his lawyer’s father to have a one-third contingency for the stolen art. It makes it seem that Gentile knows something. Doesn't it lead to the appearance of a conflict of interest?
As to the polygraph, his lawyer perhaps should have said that he didn’t care what polygraphs or tarot cards said — that both were known to be unreliable crock. Of course, Gentile was going to be off-the-charts nervous given all his criminal associations and undertakings.
I personally think that Elene [Guarente’s wife], Jeanine [daughter] and Early Berghman [contemporary] tried to return the paintings in late 2004 and/or early 2005 with the help of lawyer Bernie G., who had represented Earle’s son for biting off an officer’s ear. Jeanine was recruited by Bernie who had been involved by a different Berghman son from Providence.
Earle last was known to be in the Utica, NY homeless shelter or in Mohawk, NY. Jeanine is the one who I think knows (or having been her father’s confidante has info sufficient to lead to) where the paintings are. In any event, this old hapless fellow Gentile should have had better sense and appreciated that he was under the FBI’s microscope. He should have been on his very best behavior.
In Madison, Maine, I’ve always wanted to find the white house that is up the hill past the quonset hut past the house with all the garden gnomes up on the hill at the curve. To get to the white house, you would then out on the road (on which you take a right). [But I was unsuccessful in trying to find it and was very short on time during my brief visit.] I’m told that there was a coke bust that was hushed up in 1992 or so.
Also in Madison, ME, I’ve pointed to the concrete slab at the abandoned Guarente homestead. I have never heard that the FBI used ground penetrating radar or dug.
I do think the FBI could have been more active in its use of claw diggers — and not just sledge hammers. To include Gentile’s old used car lot (he was also in the concrete laying biz in 1992) in South Windsor, CT.
The site is on the main drag. The site definitely evidence digging and the eagle was once seen on the premises, as I recall. The small building there was razed the same time Elene discussed Gentile before the grand jury (according to the receptionist at the construction company across the interchange).
I always thought of the IRA lead (which involved gunrunner Joe Murray) — much discussed years ago — was a Marty Leppo-promoted distraction. The suggestion was that Joe had bought the paintings from Guarente for $300,000 after the state turned down Merlino’s offer to the State to return them. (See book by MC; 2004 interview by William Y.) I loved the theory but the folks telling the tale (like William Y.) didn’t have much in the way of bona fides. Quite to the contrary. You may recall that Joe died after bringing a knife to a gun fight in Belgrade Lakes, Maine with his estranged wife, who then died of an overdose in 1997. The sudden deaths — like all the many other deaths in this case including William’s wife’s passing in 1997 from an overdose — certainly made it a tantalizing theory. But as I said, in its latest incarnation, the look in someone’s eye is not even remotely any kind of sound evidence.
Post a Comment