The FBI still doesn’t know what happened to $500 million dollars worth of paintings stolen from Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in 1990.
The last living person who might know, Robert "The Cook" Gentile -- a reputed Connecticut mobster, could soon be sent away for a long time on unrelated weapons charges. Will a delay in his sentencing mean new info for authorities?
This hour, we dive into this famous unsolved art mystery.
We also consider another art crime -- forgery. How do museums and collectors detect whether their prized possessions are frauds?
And later, we hear about a “controversial” Viking map that proved to be a forgery. Why do some museums and libraries to hold onto, or even acquire, known fakes?
GUESTS:
- Stephen Kurkjian - Boston Globe reporter and author of Master Thieves: The Boston Gangsters Who Pulled Off the World’s Greatest Art Heist
- Leila Amineddoleh - Art and cultural heritage attorney and professor of art crime law at NYU
- Jennifer Mass - President of Scientific Analysis of Fine Art LLC, and and Senior Consulting Scientist for the Rijksmuseum
- Nicholas Bell - Senior Vice President for Curatorial Affairs at Mystic Seaport: The Museum of America and the Sea
- Raymond Clemens - Curator for Early Books and Manuscripts at the Beinecke Rare Books and Manuscripts Library at Yale University
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Chion Wolf contributed to this show.
