1
00:00:00,560 --> 00:00:03,760
Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class from how

2
00:00:03,800 --> 00:00:14,080
Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot Com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.

3
00:00:14,240 --> 00:00:17,600
Speaker 1: I'm Katie Mamber and I'm Sarah Dowdy, and our story

4
00:00:17,680 --> 00:00:20,560
Speaker 1: is going to start with the highest value art heist

5
00:00:20,640 --> 00:00:24,439
Speaker 1: in history. So that's a pretty good place, right It's

6
00:00:24,480 --> 00:00:27,960
Speaker 1: also a story about mustaches, and from there it's going

7
00:00:28,040 --> 00:00:29,800
Speaker 1: to take us all the way back to turn of

8
00:00:29,840 --> 00:00:33,960
Speaker 1: the century Boston with a socialite art collector who loves

9
00:00:34,040 --> 00:00:37,440
Speaker 1: boxing in the House of Worth and baseball, and she

10
00:00:37,560 --> 00:00:40,239
Speaker 1: ends up building one of the most beautiful art collections

11
00:00:40,240 --> 00:00:42,840
Speaker 1: in the country. So we have a lot to talk about,

12
00:00:42,880 --> 00:00:46,559
Speaker 1: something for everyone today. So we're going to set our scene,

13
00:00:46,680 --> 00:00:50,879
Speaker 1: which is the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. It's this quiet,

14
00:00:51,080 --> 00:00:55,080
Speaker 1: tucked away Venetian palace on the Fenway in Boston, and

15
00:00:55,120 --> 00:00:59,920
Speaker 1: it's March eighteenth, as St. Patrick's Day. Revelers are coming

16
00:01:00,000 --> 00:01:03,800
Speaker 1: back on their way home, and at one a m

17
00:01:04,040 --> 00:01:07,960
Speaker 1: the museum's buzzer sounds. The guards look out to see

18
00:01:08,000 --> 00:01:12,480
Speaker 1: what looks like two Boston policemen outside wearing almost comically

19
00:01:12,600 --> 00:01:15,920
Speaker 1: large mustaches. Uh, we kind of thought of the hot

20
00:01:15,959 --> 00:01:19,680
Speaker 1: cops here from arrested Development, but the policemen say they

21
00:01:19,680 --> 00:01:22,400
Speaker 1: need to check out a reported disturbance, so the guards

22
00:01:22,480 --> 00:01:25,920
Speaker 1: let them in, but minutes later they're cuffed bound in

23
00:01:26,000 --> 00:01:28,479
Speaker 1: duct tape, and after shutting off the video cameras, the

24
00:01:28,520 --> 00:01:31,560
Speaker 1: thieves head up to the museum's Dutch room and their

25
00:01:31,560 --> 00:01:35,080
Speaker 1: first target is an early self portrait by Rembrandt, but

26
00:01:35,240 --> 00:01:38,560
Speaker 1: it's a heavy panel in this heavy gilt frame and

27
00:01:38,560 --> 00:01:40,679
Speaker 1: it won't come out, so they just leave that one

28
00:01:40,720 --> 00:01:43,640
Speaker 1: on the floor. The canvas Rembrands are a little easier

29
00:01:43,720 --> 00:01:46,240
Speaker 1: to deal with, though the thieves slash them out of

30
00:01:46,280 --> 00:01:49,880
Speaker 1: their frames, which it's almost worse than the book of

31
00:01:50,000 --> 00:01:53,560
Speaker 1: Kel's being written in I think, and run off with

32
00:01:53,720 --> 00:01:56,480
Speaker 1: Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee and

33
00:01:56,520 --> 00:01:59,760
Speaker 1: a Lady and Gentleman in Black, two rem Brands there

34
00:02:00,080 --> 00:02:03,760
Speaker 1: Gone now, And next is Vermier's The Concert, which they

35
00:02:03,800 --> 00:02:07,040
Speaker 1: take from an easel, and then a govert Flink, and

36
00:02:07,040 --> 00:02:09,040
Speaker 1: then they move on with these big works, and they

37
00:02:09,080 --> 00:02:11,919
Speaker 1: take another Rembrandt, a little tiny etching about the size

38
00:02:11,919 --> 00:02:15,760
Speaker 1: of a postage stamp, and a bronze Chinese beaker, before

39
00:02:15,760 --> 00:02:19,160
Speaker 1: passing by all these other amazing works about a Celia

40
00:02:19,240 --> 00:02:24,480
Speaker 1: raphael A Frangelico, before taking five drawings by Digga, and

41
00:02:24,600 --> 00:02:27,960
Speaker 1: all of this happens under the John Singer Sergeant portrait

42
00:02:28,040 --> 00:02:31,240
Speaker 1: of the museum's founder, Isabella Stewart Gardner, and Sarah said,

43
00:02:31,760 --> 00:02:34,040
Speaker 1: in a movie, you would have to film it with

44
00:02:34,160 --> 00:02:37,160
Speaker 1: her eyes and the portrait she's watching the whole thing,

45
00:02:37,200 --> 00:02:39,480
Speaker 1: and then her ghost would come and haunt them or something.

46
00:02:40,400 --> 00:02:43,720
Speaker 1: Um they try to take a flag of Napoleon's Imperial Guard,

47
00:02:43,760 --> 00:02:46,000
Speaker 1: but they can't get it either, so they end up

48
00:02:46,000 --> 00:02:48,680
Speaker 1: just taking the little bronze finial of an eagle at

49
00:02:48,680 --> 00:02:51,120
Speaker 1: the top. And the final thing they take is a

50
00:02:51,200 --> 00:02:53,880
Speaker 1: min A oil, which is kind of awesome, by the way,

51
00:02:53,880 --> 00:02:56,400
Speaker 1: if you look it up. It's a guy writing in

52
00:02:56,440 --> 00:03:01,359
Speaker 1: this enormous top hat. And they don't touch Titian's Europa,

53
00:03:01,520 --> 00:03:04,800
Speaker 1: even though it's the most valuable thing in the museum.

54
00:03:04,840 --> 00:03:08,280
Speaker 1: So they spend ninety minutes inside this whole time, and

55
00:03:08,320 --> 00:03:10,640
Speaker 1: they tell the guards, you'll be hearing from us in

56
00:03:10,720 --> 00:03:14,399
Speaker 1: about a year. But now it's twenty years later. There've

57
00:03:14,440 --> 00:03:18,320
Speaker 1: been offers of immunity, a five million dollar reward, and

58
00:03:18,560 --> 00:03:20,880
Speaker 1: all of this art, which is valued at two hundred

59
00:03:20,880 --> 00:03:25,840
Speaker 1: million to five hundred million dollars, is just gone So

60
00:03:25,919 --> 00:03:29,440
Speaker 1: how did so much priceless art, these old Masters, high

61
00:03:29,440 --> 00:03:34,160
Speaker 1: Renaissance paintings, famous American works, a really extensive Asian collection,

62
00:03:34,760 --> 00:03:37,240
Speaker 1: How did they all end up in this beautiful, tiny

63
00:03:37,320 --> 00:03:42,000
Speaker 1: Venetian mansion with a lush enclosed courtyard, fountains and statue

64
00:03:42,040 --> 00:03:44,080
Speaker 1: are You should look it up online. It's really gorgeous.

65
00:03:44,560 --> 00:03:47,720
Speaker 1: That's because for nearly forty years Boston had a really

66
00:03:47,760 --> 00:03:52,760
Speaker 1: great collector, the socialite Isabella Stewart Gardner. And Isabella's Stewart

67
00:03:52,840 --> 00:03:55,240
Speaker 1: was born in eighteen forty in New York City, and

68
00:03:55,280 --> 00:03:58,600
Speaker 1: her father was a wealthy merchant, and her family even

69
00:03:58,600 --> 00:04:01,520
Speaker 1: claimed descent from the oil Storks, but that's kind of

70
00:04:01,520 --> 00:04:04,440
Speaker 1: a dubious claim. That's just one of those things that

71
00:04:04,480 --> 00:04:07,560
Speaker 1: people say. Who wouldn't like to be related to American Scots? Right?

72
00:04:07,960 --> 00:04:11,640
Speaker 1: She was educated in private schools in New York and Paris,

73
00:04:11,840 --> 00:04:16,040
Speaker 1: and she befriended Julia Gardner abroad. She eventually married her

74
00:04:16,080 --> 00:04:19,200
Speaker 1: friend's older brother, John L. Gardner, known as Jack, in

75
00:04:19,320 --> 00:04:22,800
Speaker 1: eighteen sixty and they moved to Beacon Street in Boston together.

76
00:04:23,600 --> 00:04:26,160
Speaker 1: But her entry into the art world was partly brought

77
00:04:26,200 --> 00:04:29,880
Speaker 1: on by a personal tragedy. Uh their son, John Gardner,

78
00:04:29,960 --> 00:04:32,040
Speaker 1: the third known as Jackie, died when he was two

79
00:04:32,120 --> 00:04:35,440
Speaker 1: years old of pneumonia, and she falls into a deep

80
00:04:35,440 --> 00:04:39,280
Speaker 1: depression and she gets really sick, and her doctor recommends

81
00:04:39,320 --> 00:04:41,680
Speaker 1: that jack take her traveling, and so they go to

82
00:04:41,720 --> 00:04:45,720
Speaker 1: Scandinavia and Russia and Vienna and Paris, and by the

83
00:04:45,720 --> 00:04:48,200
Speaker 1: time she comes back, she's feeling a lot better. And

84
00:04:48,440 --> 00:04:51,280
Speaker 1: they've also started to pick up little, you know, pretty

85
00:04:51,320 --> 00:04:54,080
Speaker 1: things along the course of their travels and bringing them

86
00:04:54,120 --> 00:04:57,200
Speaker 1: back to their Beacon Hill home. And they don't have

87
00:04:57,240 --> 00:04:59,880
Speaker 1: any more children, although they do raise their three or

88
00:05:00,040 --> 00:05:03,120
Speaker 1: and nephews, and they travel even more extensively after that,

89
00:05:03,200 --> 00:05:06,760
Speaker 1: the Middle East, Central Europe, Asia, all around the United States,

90
00:05:06,800 --> 00:05:11,760
Speaker 1: although perhaps unsurprisingly considering the museum's design, their favorite spot

91
00:05:11,760 --> 00:05:14,720
Speaker 1: was Venice, where they stayed at the Palazzo Barbara. And

92
00:05:14,800 --> 00:05:17,920
Speaker 1: Isabella is a very social woman too, so don't think

93
00:05:17,920 --> 00:05:20,320
Speaker 1: of just her and her husband off on these private

94
00:05:20,360 --> 00:05:24,560
Speaker 1: travels all the time. The museum's archives actually have seven

95
00:05:24,600 --> 00:05:29,400
Speaker 1: thousand letters from one thousand correspondents, so she's a busy lady.

96
00:05:30,200 --> 00:05:34,000
Speaker 1: She's really social, but that doesn't mean she's necessarily popular

97
00:05:34,040 --> 00:05:37,440
Speaker 1: with the Boston Brahmin's she's different. She's got all this traveling.

98
00:05:38,000 --> 00:05:42,200
Speaker 1: She's mingling with American ex pats like Henry James, Singer Sargeant,

99
00:05:42,800 --> 00:05:47,480
Speaker 1: James McNeil, Whistler, and she's generally very extravagant, spending thousands

100
00:05:47,520 --> 00:05:51,080
Speaker 1: of dollars on these paintings, Charles Worth clothing and jewels.

101
00:05:51,160 --> 00:05:55,120
Speaker 1: So she's an outsider. Yeah, she's never totally accepted by

102
00:05:55,120 --> 00:05:58,560
Speaker 1: that society, but she's so amazing and she cuts her

103
00:05:58,560 --> 00:06:00,960
Speaker 1: own profile in it. You know, who wouldn't want to

104
00:06:01,040 --> 00:06:04,600
Speaker 1: hang out with her? I know, she's really great, but

105
00:06:04,720 --> 00:06:07,240
Speaker 1: one critic wrote that she was the most dashing of

106
00:06:07,320 --> 00:06:10,640
Speaker 1: fashion's local signis shirts. Who can order the whole symphony

107
00:06:10,760 --> 00:06:14,640
Speaker 1: orchestra to her house for a private musical, So there

108
00:06:14,640 --> 00:06:17,279
Speaker 1: you do. And her tastes were really broad. It wasn't

109
00:06:17,400 --> 00:06:19,520
Speaker 1: just that she was interested in art. She was also

110
00:06:20,000 --> 00:06:24,160
Speaker 1: really into the Red Sox and boxing and hockey, Harvard football,

111
00:06:24,240 --> 00:06:30,880
Speaker 1: and horse races. So she had But it doesn't take

112
00:06:30,960 --> 00:06:33,799
Speaker 1: long for her to get up, you know, beyond picking

113
00:06:33,880 --> 00:06:36,919
Speaker 1: up pretty little souvenirs on her travels, and get into

114
00:06:37,360 --> 00:06:41,159
Speaker 1: really serious art collecting. And she does this by the

115
00:06:41,200 --> 00:06:44,600
Speaker 1: mid eighteen nineties and starts hanging up all her paintings

116
00:06:44,640 --> 00:06:47,679
Speaker 1: at her Beacon Hill house, leading the extras on chair.

117
00:06:47,920 --> 00:06:50,279
Speaker 1: So I can imagine, just like, oh gosh, where am

118
00:06:50,279 --> 00:06:52,960
Speaker 1: I going to even put this Rembrandt? I just thought.

119
00:06:53,520 --> 00:06:56,560
Speaker 1: She has an advisor to Bernard Brenson, who does a

120
00:06:56,600 --> 00:06:59,320
Speaker 1: lot of her buying, and she has also befriended some

121
00:06:59,440 --> 00:07:03,240
Speaker 1: influence people in the Eastern art world, like Oka Cora Cucuzo,

122
00:07:03,320 --> 00:07:06,680
Speaker 1: who's famous for writing the Book of Tea and helping

123
00:07:06,720 --> 00:07:10,160
Speaker 1: to preserve Japanese artistic styles. Today there's a copy of

124
00:07:10,160 --> 00:07:13,440
Speaker 1: the book at the museum. Yeah. Her first major old

125
00:07:13,480 --> 00:07:16,600
Speaker 1: Master purchase comes in eighteen ninety two, and it's of

126
00:07:16,720 --> 00:07:21,040
Speaker 1: Vermeer the Concert. It's eventually stolen in the heist, and

127
00:07:21,120 --> 00:07:24,440
Speaker 1: it costs her just over six thousand dollars. And this

128
00:07:24,520 --> 00:07:26,840
Speaker 1: is kind of weird to think of now you I

129
00:07:26,840 --> 00:07:29,720
Speaker 1: don't know, I guess you imagine old Masters paintings always

130
00:07:29,760 --> 00:07:33,520
Speaker 1: being expensive and in high demand, but that's not really

131
00:07:33,560 --> 00:07:36,400
Speaker 1: the case. In eighteen nine two, this was a pretty

132
00:07:36,440 --> 00:07:40,600
Speaker 1: progressive purchase, and she heads off a trend a few

133
00:07:40,680 --> 00:07:44,760
Speaker 1: years later. American buyers think American industrialists with lots of

134
00:07:44,800 --> 00:07:48,840
Speaker 1: money or snatching up all the Old Master paintings they can, right.

135
00:07:48,920 --> 00:07:51,160
Speaker 1: And you you told me something cool from a book

136
00:07:51,160 --> 00:07:54,480
Speaker 1: you were reading about grain and painting. Yeah, it was

137
00:07:54,520 --> 00:07:58,119
Speaker 1: a book by Cynthia Saltzman called Old Master's New World.

138
00:07:58,120 --> 00:07:59,840
Speaker 1: I think I kind of want to read it now.

139
00:08:00,280 --> 00:08:02,880
Speaker 1: But she said that a lot of this rush on

140
00:08:03,240 --> 00:08:07,440
Speaker 1: European art, and specifically Old Masters works that were being

141
00:08:07,480 --> 00:08:12,400
Speaker 1: held in England came because the English started importing American grain,

142
00:08:12,640 --> 00:08:16,520
Speaker 1: and consequently their prices fell and their land value fell.

143
00:08:16,800 --> 00:08:20,440
Speaker 1: And you have all these old lords who aren't making

144
00:08:20,480 --> 00:08:25,200
Speaker 1: rent anymore, the pinch. Yeah. And meanwhile their inheritance taxes

145
00:08:25,240 --> 00:08:28,080
Speaker 1: are going up, their property taxes are going up, and

146
00:08:28,360 --> 00:08:31,560
Speaker 1: they're more willing to sell off the old Rembrandt they

147
00:08:31,560 --> 00:08:34,960
Speaker 1: have in the manner. And meanwhile, of course we have

148
00:08:35,120 --> 00:08:39,360
Speaker 1: our American tycoons getting fabulously rich but also wanting to

149
00:08:39,400 --> 00:08:43,160
Speaker 1: cultivate culture. It might remind you of our Hearst podcast

150
00:08:43,480 --> 00:08:46,640
Speaker 1: very much. Hearst. And because Americans are building all these

151
00:08:46,720 --> 00:08:49,679
Speaker 1: new big museums, they need art to fill them up with.

152
00:08:49,840 --> 00:08:54,600
Speaker 1: And this in turn influences generations of American artists who

153
00:08:54,600 --> 00:08:57,559
Speaker 1: are able to go and see these great works from

154
00:08:57,600 --> 00:09:00,760
Speaker 1: old Masters from the Italian Renaissance and not have to

155
00:09:00,800 --> 00:09:03,320
Speaker 1: go all the way to Europe to to see a

156
00:09:03,360 --> 00:09:07,600
Speaker 1: painting gardeners not just about the old masters, though. She's

157
00:09:07,640 --> 00:09:10,640
Speaker 1: not your your average art collector. She wrote to Barns

158
00:09:10,640 --> 00:09:13,400
Speaker 1: in a nineteen hundred you know, or rather you don't

159
00:09:13,480 --> 00:09:16,520
Speaker 1: know that I adore Giotto and really don't adore Rembrandt.

160
00:09:16,679 --> 00:09:19,280
Speaker 1: I only like him, And he wrote back, I am

161
00:09:19,320 --> 00:09:22,080
Speaker 1: not anxious to have you own braces of Rembrandt's like

162
00:09:22,160 --> 00:09:25,160
Speaker 1: any vulgar millionaire. And Sarah's a big Giotto fan. A

163
00:09:26,559 --> 00:09:30,600
Speaker 1: This is another point in Isabella's favor um. Her love

164
00:09:30,640 --> 00:09:34,440
Speaker 1: for Italian Renaissance art makes her by Botticelli's Death of

165
00:09:34,480 --> 00:09:38,160
Speaker 1: Lucretia for fifteen thousand dollars, and that's actually the first

166
00:09:38,920 --> 00:09:42,760
Speaker 1: uh Botcelli to come to the United States. And she

167
00:09:42,880 --> 00:09:46,240
Speaker 1: likes contemporary art. We've already mentioned. She's friends with Singer

168
00:09:46,280 --> 00:09:50,480
Speaker 1: Sergeant and whistler um. And she sees herself not just

169
00:09:50,600 --> 00:09:53,800
Speaker 1: as a woman decorating her home and kind of fitting

170
00:09:53,840 --> 00:09:59,640
Speaker 1: into that um Victorian standard of I don't know Victorian

171
00:09:59,720 --> 00:10:03,200
Speaker 1: real for women, but more like a Renaissance patron of

172
00:10:03,200 --> 00:10:06,400
Speaker 1: the arts, kind of like Lauren. Yeah, it was more

173
00:10:06,440 --> 00:10:10,680
Speaker 1: specifically Isabella Dusty, who we mentioned in our Catherine Medici

174
00:10:10,760 --> 00:10:14,959
Speaker 1: podcast recently, and in eighteen eighty six, her friend Henry

175
00:10:15,040 --> 00:10:18,200
Speaker 1: James takes her to Singer Sergeant's London studio to see

176
00:10:18,240 --> 00:10:21,640
Speaker 1: Madam X, which is of course a very famous and

177
00:10:21,800 --> 00:10:25,040
Speaker 1: very lovely painting, and he does a head on, full

178
00:10:25,040 --> 00:10:28,200
Speaker 1: body painting of her in front of a Venetian brocade,

179
00:10:28,240 --> 00:10:31,960
Speaker 1: which James describes as a Byzantine madonna with a halo,

180
00:10:32,480 --> 00:10:35,280
Speaker 1: and Sergeant displays it as a woman and enigma. It

181
00:10:35,320 --> 00:10:38,160
Speaker 1: really does look like a halo. The brocade's pattern is

182
00:10:38,600 --> 00:10:42,760
Speaker 1: directly behind her head. It's pretty cool. But after Gardner's

183
00:10:42,880 --> 00:10:46,080
Speaker 1: husband died in eighteen ninety eight, her collecting took a

184
00:10:46,160 --> 00:10:49,600
Speaker 1: different turn and she started to build a museum and

185
00:10:49,760 --> 00:10:52,559
Speaker 1: she wanted to make her private space, you know, her

186
00:10:52,880 --> 00:10:56,760
Speaker 1: Beacon Hill home with paintings leaning on chairs, into a

187
00:10:56,800 --> 00:11:00,000
Speaker 1: public space where everybody could come and appreciate her works

188
00:11:00,040 --> 00:11:03,160
Speaker 1: of art, and she helps with the design, with the construction.

189
00:11:03,240 --> 00:11:07,000
Speaker 1: She takes a very active role in the building at

190
00:11:07,040 --> 00:11:10,120
Speaker 1: this museum and it kind of reminded us of the

191
00:11:10,200 --> 00:11:13,800
Speaker 1: Hearst Castle because it has this mix of styles. You

192
00:11:13,840 --> 00:11:16,640
Speaker 1: walk into one room that's decorated in a certain way,

193
00:11:16,720 --> 00:11:20,120
Speaker 1: and then into another that's completely different. And all of

194
00:11:20,120 --> 00:11:23,960
Speaker 1: this faces in on a gorgeous courtyard with windows and

195
00:11:24,000 --> 00:11:26,800
Speaker 1: balconies that honestly look like they'd be in a capulate.

196
00:11:27,400 --> 00:11:29,920
Speaker 1: Juliet's going to lean out one of the balconies at

197
00:11:29,960 --> 00:11:32,880
Speaker 1: any second. And the museum opens to the public in

198
00:11:33,080 --> 00:11:35,960
Speaker 1: nineteen o three, and she has a phoenix above the

199
00:11:36,000 --> 00:11:39,440
Speaker 1: door along with a coat of arms, and I guess

200
00:11:39,440 --> 00:11:44,040
Speaker 1: her own personal motto, which is simul plesier, which I

201
00:11:44,080 --> 00:11:47,000
Speaker 1: don't know. I like that. It's a pretty bold statement

202
00:11:47,080 --> 00:11:50,120
Speaker 1: to make at the at the gate of your museums.

203
00:11:50,280 --> 00:11:53,160
Speaker 1: And she slows down on the collecting later in her

204
00:11:53,200 --> 00:11:56,439
Speaker 1: life to try to leave the museum with a nice endowment.

205
00:11:57,000 --> 00:12:00,280
Speaker 1: When she died in nineteen four, after a series of jokes,

206
00:12:00,360 --> 00:12:02,719
Speaker 1: she'd saved up a million dollars for the museum, with

207
00:12:03,280 --> 00:12:06,360
Speaker 1: enough left over for charitable donations for the prevention of

208
00:12:06,400 --> 00:12:09,319
Speaker 1: cruelty to children and to animals. And the museum is

209
00:12:09,360 --> 00:12:13,240
Speaker 1: given to Boston as a public institution with a catch.

210
00:12:13,760 --> 00:12:18,160
Speaker 1: Nothing can be changed, rearranged, added, or removed, although in

211
00:12:18,200 --> 00:12:21,640
Speaker 1: two thousand nine a Massachusetts court did decide that there

212
00:12:21,679 --> 00:12:25,640
Speaker 1: could be an addition made by Renzo Piano, who did

213
00:12:25,679 --> 00:12:29,520
Speaker 1: the High Museum addition here in Atlanta. So the short

214
00:12:29,559 --> 00:12:32,400
Speaker 1: story is, if you go to the Gardener Museum today,

215
00:12:32,480 --> 00:12:36,480
Speaker 1: it's going to look exactly like Isabella Stuart Gardener intended

216
00:12:36,520 --> 00:12:39,160
Speaker 1: it to look. It's it's her house, it's her museum,

217
00:12:39,240 --> 00:12:43,760
Speaker 1: except that, of course the nineteen nine thieves weren't so

218
00:12:43,880 --> 00:12:46,679
Speaker 1: kind as to follow her wishes. So when you enter

219
00:12:46,760 --> 00:12:51,680
Speaker 1: the Dutch room there are gaping frames where masterpieces should be.

220
00:12:52,640 --> 00:12:55,480
Speaker 1: So that brings us back to our heist and the

221
00:12:55,559 --> 00:13:00,280
Speaker 1: question where our gardeners missing masterpieces and there's a good

222
00:13:00,360 --> 00:13:04,440
Speaker 1: chance that they've actually been destroyed by now. When Sarah

223
00:13:04,480 --> 00:13:07,360
Speaker 1: was explaining this to me, she said that sometimes art

224
00:13:07,440 --> 00:13:10,360
Speaker 1: was too hot to unload, which I love because apparently

225
00:13:10,400 --> 00:13:12,320
Speaker 1: she has a secret life. Makes me sound like a

226
00:13:12,360 --> 00:13:15,600
Speaker 1: hot I don't know about um, but they're probably part

227
00:13:15,720 --> 00:13:19,640
Speaker 1: of the dark, shadowy art black market, where art is

228
00:13:19,720 --> 00:13:23,400
Speaker 1: often used as collateral instead of cash for drugs and guns,

229
00:13:23,440 --> 00:13:27,480
Speaker 1: which I had no idea that art would be collateral.

230
00:13:28,040 --> 00:13:31,400
Speaker 1: But according to Alexander Smith, who worked with the Art

231
00:13:31,440 --> 00:13:35,280
Speaker 1: Loss Register, it keeps this huge, long record of all

232
00:13:35,320 --> 00:13:39,880
Speaker 1: the hundreds of thousands of artworks that are missing stolen um.

233
00:13:39,920 --> 00:13:43,319
Speaker 1: She She says that with tighter banking regulations, it has

234
00:13:43,360 --> 00:13:46,160
Speaker 1: become difficult for people to put big chunks of money

235
00:13:46,160 --> 00:13:50,280
Speaker 1: in financial institutions without getting noticed. So now thieves go

236
00:13:50,360 --> 00:13:53,880
Speaker 1: out and steal a painting. So it's easy cash, I guess.

237
00:13:54,120 --> 00:13:56,600
Speaker 1: But we want to make it clear that most thefts

238
00:13:56,720 --> 00:14:00,320
Speaker 1: aren't as glamorous as say the two thousand two fist

239
00:14:00,320 --> 00:14:03,800
Speaker 1: in Paraguay where thieves dug an eighty foot tunnel, or

240
00:14:03,840 --> 00:14:07,080
Speaker 1: our gardener heist with the false mustaches now the Thomas

241
00:14:07,080 --> 00:14:11,079
Speaker 1: Crown affair. According to a Smithsonian article by Robert Pool,

242
00:14:11,160 --> 00:14:15,320
Speaker 1: it's usually just someone with inside access who lifts a

243
00:14:15,520 --> 00:14:18,440
Speaker 1: stored work and walks off, because of course most museums

244
00:14:18,480 --> 00:14:21,720
Speaker 1: don't have their whole collection out. A lot of stories.

245
00:14:21,800 --> 00:14:24,960
Speaker 1: Imagine a print that's in a museum spacement and nobody

246
00:14:25,000 --> 00:14:30,040
Speaker 1: thinks anyone will notice. Since the gardener heist is ostensibly

247
00:14:30,080 --> 00:14:33,240
Speaker 1: the highest profile job in the world, there have been

248
00:14:33,400 --> 00:14:37,240
Speaker 1: tons of leads, tips, and bizarro theories, some of which

249
00:14:37,520 --> 00:14:39,960
Speaker 1: will tell you. One is that the i ra A

250
00:14:40,360 --> 00:14:43,520
Speaker 1: staged it to use as a bargaining chip for jailed members.

251
00:14:43,560 --> 00:14:45,640
Speaker 1: And this is another thing. If you think of of

252
00:14:45,960 --> 00:14:50,360
Speaker 1: UM artworks being used as cash, they can also sometimes

253
00:14:50,360 --> 00:14:52,960
Speaker 1: be used as get out of jail free cards because

254
00:14:53,160 --> 00:14:56,680
Speaker 1: there's the immunity. Yeah, because authorities will want to get

255
00:14:56,720 --> 00:15:00,360
Speaker 1: the artworks back so desperately. There they'll offer in unity

256
00:15:00,400 --> 00:15:04,040
Speaker 1: to anybody involved. Another idea is that it was planned

257
00:15:04,080 --> 00:15:07,360
Speaker 1: out by a musician who had performed with Roy Orbison

258
00:15:07,840 --> 00:15:10,960
Speaker 1: before he was nabbed for another stuff. Another is that

259
00:15:11,000 --> 00:15:14,560
Speaker 1: the artworks are hidden in Ireland's West Country, which is

260
00:15:14,560 --> 00:15:18,440
Speaker 1: a theory. This is very strange. It's a theory developed

261
00:15:18,480 --> 00:15:21,600
Speaker 1: in part because so many of the stolen goods were

262
00:15:21,920 --> 00:15:25,760
Speaker 1: kind of horsey in theme, like the dig oust gushes

263
00:15:25,760 --> 00:15:30,040
Speaker 1: are all equestrian subjects, and since the Irish love horses

264
00:15:30,120 --> 00:15:35,480
Speaker 1: so much, maybe maybe there's a connection UM. Some also

265
00:15:35,600 --> 00:15:38,840
Speaker 1: have said that it was taken as security by Boston

266
00:15:38,960 --> 00:15:43,080
Speaker 1: crime boss James Whitey Boulger with the help of compromised

267
00:15:43,160 --> 00:15:45,160
Speaker 1: FBI agents. But Sarah, you know a little bit more

268
00:15:45,160 --> 00:15:47,320
Speaker 1: about that one than I do. Well, Boulger in the

269
00:15:47,440 --> 00:15:50,400
Speaker 1: local FBI office did work together. They worked together to

270
00:15:50,480 --> 00:15:54,080
Speaker 1: brain down an Italian crime family, which consequently was also

271
00:15:54,320 --> 00:15:58,480
Speaker 1: Bulger's main competitor in Boston, but it leads to him

272
00:15:58,560 --> 00:16:02,440
Speaker 1: buying off some of his BI handlers and an FBI supervisor,

273
00:16:02,520 --> 00:16:06,600
Speaker 1: John Connolly, and Boulger is actually still one of the

274
00:16:06,680 --> 00:16:11,000
Speaker 1: FBI's ten most wanted fugitives, and he's been charged with racketeering, conspiracy,

275
00:16:11,480 --> 00:16:16,360
Speaker 1: narcotics distribution, and nineteen counts of murder. So people think

276
00:16:16,680 --> 00:16:19,520
Speaker 1: he's the only guy in Boston at the time who

277
00:16:19,560 --> 00:16:22,120
Speaker 1: would have been able to get those paintings out of

278
00:16:22,160 --> 00:16:25,200
Speaker 1: the country since he had this FBI connection. And our

279
00:16:25,320 --> 00:16:28,320
Speaker 1: latest word comes from April two thousand ten and the

280
00:16:28,400 --> 00:16:31,440
Speaker 1: Boston Globe, and that's that the FBI was hot on

281
00:16:31,480 --> 00:16:33,560
Speaker 1: the trail of the art, which this time was being

282
00:16:33,640 --> 00:16:37,800
Speaker 1: held by a Corsican gang. Um, But that bureaucratic infighting

283
00:16:37,880 --> 00:16:41,000
Speaker 1: and an inability for the FBI to work with their

284
00:16:41,080 --> 00:16:45,280
Speaker 1: French counterparts blew the whole thing up. So in conclusion,

285
00:16:45,600 --> 00:16:48,480
Speaker 1: the art is still missing. Um. We hope that it's

286
00:16:48,520 --> 00:16:51,800
Speaker 1: being well cared for and that someday it will find

287
00:16:51,840 --> 00:16:55,880
Speaker 1: its way back to its lovely home in Boston. Meanwhile,

288
00:16:56,120 --> 00:16:59,000
Speaker 1: there's plenty of neat stuff to see at the museum

289
00:16:59,480 --> 00:17:04,119
Speaker 1: and now carries much better theft insurance and UH a

290
00:17:04,240 --> 00:17:07,080
Speaker 1: much more intense security system than it used to. And

291
00:17:07,280 --> 00:17:09,920
Speaker 1: another side note, if your name is Isabella, you can

292
00:17:10,000 --> 00:17:12,560
Speaker 1: go to the museum for free. We might need to

293
00:17:12,680 --> 00:17:15,679
Speaker 1: change our names and go visit. And we have a quote,

294
00:17:16,080 --> 00:17:19,320
Speaker 1: our final quote from Barrenson on Gardner, which I will

295
00:17:19,400 --> 00:17:21,200
Speaker 1: let you read, Sarah, since you love her so much,

296
00:17:22,200 --> 00:17:24,959
Speaker 1: and that is she lives at a rate in intensity

297
00:17:25,119 --> 00:17:28,119
Speaker 1: and with a reality that makes other lives seem pale,

298
00:17:28,320 --> 00:17:31,520
Speaker 1: thin and shadowy. And that's the final word on Isabella

299
00:17:31,600 --> 00:17:38,760
Speaker 1: Stewart Gardner. And that brings us to listener mail. This

300
00:17:38,920 --> 00:17:42,160
Speaker 1: is a special edition of real mail, this time from

301
00:17:42,400 --> 00:17:46,080
Speaker 1: Jill in Minneapolis, and she sent us a pretty funny

302
00:17:46,359 --> 00:17:49,320
Speaker 1: postcard that just says hello everyone on the front. But

303
00:17:49,440 --> 00:17:52,080
Speaker 1: she sent it in honor of National Card and Letter

304
00:17:52,160 --> 00:17:54,760
Speaker 1: Writing Month and suggested we do a podcast on the

305
00:17:54,840 --> 00:17:58,600
Speaker 1: Pony Express or the USPS. So what do y'all think?

306
00:17:58,640 --> 00:18:00,960
Speaker 1: Do you like those ideas? You should let us know

307
00:18:01,200 --> 00:18:04,520
Speaker 1: at History podcast at how stuff works dot com. And

308
00:18:04,640 --> 00:18:08,080
Speaker 1: we also have an unorthodox listener mail. I got a

309
00:18:08,280 --> 00:18:11,680
Speaker 1: text from my old boss from my bartending days, Chris,

310
00:18:12,280 --> 00:18:14,640
Speaker 1: who said that he and his little son Finn were

311
00:18:14,680 --> 00:18:17,240
Speaker 1: big fans of the podcast, so a shout out to

312
00:18:17,400 --> 00:18:20,280
Speaker 1: Chris and Finn, and if you'd like to follow us

313
00:18:20,400 --> 00:18:22,840
Speaker 1: on Twitter, you can find us at mist in History.

314
00:18:22,960 --> 00:18:25,879
Speaker 1: We also have a Facebook fan page that we update

315
00:18:26,240 --> 00:18:29,960
Speaker 1: fairly frequently, and we have an article recommendation for you today,

316
00:18:30,200 --> 00:18:33,680
Speaker 1: five impressive artists, which you can find if you search

317
00:18:33,760 --> 00:18:37,080
Speaker 1: on our homepage at www dot house stuff works dot com.

318
00:18:38,840 --> 00:18:41,320
Speaker 1: For more on this and thousands of other topics, visit

319
00:18:41,400 --> 00:18:43,640
Speaker 1: how stuff works dot com and be sure to check

320
00:18:43,680 --> 00:18:45,879
Speaker 1: out the stuff you missed in History glass blocked on

321
00:18:46,000 --> 00:18:47,639
Speaker 1: the how stuff works dot com home page