One of the world’s biggest art heists, the theft of $1bn-worth of paintings from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, shocked the art world in 1990. Two thieves disguised as police officers entered the museum and stole The Concert by Johannes Vermeer(€170M),Storm on the Sea of Galilee by Rembrandt(€85.5M) and Manet’s Chez Tortoni(€55M) were among the most valuable paintings ripped out of the gallery.
The paintings have been missing all this time but a BBC documentary has suggested that rather than secretly gracing the walls of some sneaky toff’s palatial home, the paintings are hidden behind a wall in a rather more humble West Dublin house. Former Met detective with the art and antique squad, Charley Hill, says that he’s quite convinced that he knows where they are.
His source, Martin ‘The Viper’ Foley, currently on he run, is 99% sure of the painting’s location. The paintings’ frames remain empty on the Boston museum’s walls. Charley Hill led the investigation into the theft of Edvard Munch’s The Scream and a Vermeer painting famously stolen by Martin Cahill from Russborough House by deceased crime boss, Martin Cahill. Both paintings were recovered.
Martin Foley is not thought to have been involved in the massive $1Billion heist but is believed to be a kid in the know about who did get the massive art haul to Ireland. Perhaps fittingly, if the paintings are recovered in Ireland, the theft happened on St Patrick’s Day 1990. The investigation continues.
