Mobster Allegedly Offered to Sell Gardner Paintings

  • April 20, 2015 22:59

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Missing from the Gardner Museum are Vermeer’s "The Concert" (1658–1660), Rembrandt’s only seascape, "Storm on the Sea of Galilee (1633), and Edouard Manet’s "Chez Tortoni" (1878–1880.
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

A federal prosecutor said in court Monday that a 79-year-old Connecticut crime figure offered to sell two artworks stolen 25 years ago from Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Robert Gentile allegedly offered the pair for $500,000 shortly after his release from prison last year.

The elderly crimina, allegedly told an undercover officer that he didn't think he would get the $5 million reward for the artwork since "the feds are coming after him anyway."

The Manchester, Conn., home of Gentile was searched in 2012 for the $500-million-dollars in missing art. Gentile is the only "person of interest" still alive; four others believed to be involved with the 1990 heist are dead.

Gentile, a member of the Philadelphia branch of La Cosa Nostra, was ordered back to prison by the federal judge on Monday, based on previous charges for selling a loaded gun and prescription drugs. His lawyer thinks the feds brought on the new case in an attempt to get information on the Gardner paintings.

Read more at Boston Globe

Tags: european art

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