Mobster Allegedly Offered to Sell Gardner Paintings
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.