In the early hours of March 18, 1990, two men dressed as police officers walked into Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum—and walked out with thirteen works of art worth an estimated $500 million.

The haul included a Vermeer, three Rembrandts, five works by Degas, a Manet, and, because apparently priceless masterpieces weren’t enough, the decorative top of a Napoleonic flagpole.

More than three decades later, the art is still missing. No one has been charged. And the empty frames still hang on the museum walls, waiting for paintings that may—or may not—ever come home.

In this episode of Art Happens, we unravel the largest art heist in American history: fake cops, restrained guards, 81 very strange minutes inside the museum, mob connections, dead ends, questionable suspects, and one enormous unanswered question:

Where the hell are the paintings?

Art Happens: The Divine Mess of Art History is produced by J-Squared Atelier, where art history gets a little messy—and that’s usually when things get interesting.

All photographic images are courtesy of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston. Licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

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