If Robert “Bobby the Cook” Gentile knows anything about the over $500 M worth of art taken in 1990 from Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, he’s willing to take it to his grave.
The 80-year-old, in federal custody awaiting trial on gun charges, was reported to be on his deathbed when his attorney rushed to a South Carolina hospital to tell him for the last time – if you’ve ever had the paintings, give them up – but he said there’s no paintings. His health has improved but he is still not talking.
Gentile’s role in the most infamous art heist in America isn’t clear. Gentile became a focus of the investigation in 2009 when the widow of another person of interest in the theft, Robert Guarente, told the FBI that Guarente and Gentile had at least two of the stolen works before Guarente’s died of cancer in 2004. Gentile’s attorney, Ryan McGuigan said Guarente may have had the paintings, but his client insists they did not come from him.
McGuigan said: “He’s denied ever having the paintings and he’s denied knowing the whereabouts of the paintings he hasn’t denied knowing the people who at one point had possession of the paintings.” McGuigan added: “This whole case comes down to this woman saying her husband gave him the paintings. Anybody who had these paintings would hold onto them because the possession of them is power. You’d be giving up the keys to the kingdom. It doesn’t make any sense.”
Gentile is currently in prison facing a federal gun charge he says the FBI contrived to force him to disclose the location of the artwork. Last May, FBI agents dug up the yard of a Connecticut home Gentile owned, in a search for evidence.
A federal prosecutor said earlier this year that Gentile offered to sell the paintings to an undercover FBI agent for $500,000 a piece last year. The prosecutor also said Gentile failed a polygraph exam when questioned about the theft and whereabouts of the art.
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Art Theft Summary:
In the early morning hours of March 18, 1990, a pair of thieves disguised as Boston police officers gained entry to the museum and stole thirteen works of art. The total worth of the stolen pieces has been estimated at $500 million, making the robbery one of the most expensive property thefts in America. Among the stolen works was The Concert, one of only 34 known works by Vermeer and thought to be the most valuable unrecovered painting at over $200 million. Also missing is The Storm on the Sea of Galilee, Rembrandt’s only known seascape.
Despite efforts by the FBI, the works have not yet been recovered. The case remains unsolved, with the museum offering a reward of $5 million for information leading to recovery of the art. Empty frames hang in the Dutch Room gallery as placeholders for the missing works, in hopeful expectation of their return. The selection of stolen works puzzled experts, as more valuable artworks were present in the museum. According to the FBI, the stolen artwork was moved through the region and offered for sale in Philadelphia during the early 2000s. They believe the thieves were members of a criminal organization based in the mid-Atlantic and New England.
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