The Thrilling Gardner Museum Heist

[Music] this week on BuzzFeed in solidly investigate the Gardner Museum art heist the biggest museum art heist in the world it's also considered America's biggest property crime ever I love it what do you love about I love heists this is fun yeah heists are fun for the most part there I guess victimless you're stealing from largely what the rich I suppose yeah people who own a lot of marble and oil paintings yeah whatever steal from them I don't care and there is like a weird impulse to root for the robbers yeah I don't know what why that is much fun well we'll see who you're rooting for in a second let's get into it oh built in 1901 the Gardner Museum houses over 15,000 pieces of art collected by the late Isabella Stewart Gardner and on March 18th 1990 the museum fell victim to a historic highest though only 13 pieces of art were stolen the combined value is worth over five hundred million dollars ironically at the time of the robbery the museum was in the midst of updating their outdated security I can't imagine if I was upgrading my home security and in the couple days that I was doing it my house got robbed that happens sometimes you lose five hundred million dollars yeah I would lose fifty bucks in cash an xbox one I have a precious a butterfly encased in glass you have a butterfly encased are you like that's um that's weird right that's I'm going to head down that road of having a room that's full of bugs and and butterflies and I wanted to look like like a serial killers dead yes well traveled to serial killer on the night of the heist to inexperience Guardsmen were on duty one security guard named Richard II Abbott was a music school dropout and part of a rock band he was a rock performer by day and a security guard at the Museum by night by his own admission he would sometimes show up for work drunk or stoned after a performance quote I'd be just getting off of the stage somewhere and just wanted to slow down before I went over to the most boring job in the world end quote I really respect this guy I mean he is a knucklehead but he's an honest no he's not trying to say like I tried my best I had this is this was my passion this job I took it very seriously he's very forthcoming with yeah I didn't really like this how often does a heist happen it truly must be the most boring job in the world though Abbott insists he was sober the night of the robbery around 12:54 a.m. a half hour before the thieves had successfully entered the building a fire alarm went off on the third floor of the museum when it was investigated there was no fire whether this was part of the thieves scheme is unknown at 1:24 a.m. two men dressed as policemen buzzed into the security desk where abbath was stationed the men stated that they were responding to a disturbance call and demanded entry there were st. Patrick's Day parties happening in the neighborhood so a disturbance call made sense to the security guard Abbott also abbath added that he wanted to avoid getting arrested because he had tickets to a Grateful Dead concert later that day this guy has all the correct motivation I love that he says he's high all the time except for this one day he's like yeah I'm always stoned I wasn't that day and that his priorities I know that he's got a dead show to go to and here's the thing if he was this forthcoming with police officers who may charge him for criminal offences uh-huh I have to imagine he was this forthcoming in the job interview for sure so it's almost on the museum themselves for hiring this man Abbott buzz the two policemen through the employee entrance violating museum protocol then one of the men said to Abbott quote you look familiar I think we have a default warrant out of you come out here and show us some identification abbath was tricked to leave his control disk which has the only button that would immediately alert the police he was then instructed to face wall and stands ready Goliath recalls that as he was being handcuffed he found it odd that he was not frisked before him and it dawned on him that this could be a robbery I don't know if these two robbers were as bright as they seemed but it is interesting to point out that they knew that the only button to alert the police was at that desk so they knew they had to get him away from it that's very good it's ticking all the boxes so far because not only are they have they clearly done their research or at least happened upon a very they may have cased the joint yeah they got costumes I'm picturing just the whole crew like a guy up on a telephone pole oh yeah he's always the guy on the telephone but I like to have a lookout and all that stuff is there a guy on a telephone we'll get into how this gossip there better be a kind of telephone we'll see at this time the second guard arrived and was also arrested the second guard asked why he was being arrested and the men replied you're not being arrested this is a robbery don't give us any problems and you won't get hurt the guard responded quote don't worry they don't pay me enough to get hurt I'm not taking a bullet for some rich person because they wanted to jaunt around the world and have their art shown I'm just realizing now how fun it would be to bond with the robbers I'm I'm kicking back with these guys the heads hands and feet of the guards were tied with duct tape motion detectors in the museum showed that the robbers then went to the second floor and split up removing various pieces of art from the walls during the heist an alarm went off he was meant to alert guard that someone had gotten too close to the artwork the robbers found the alarm and - - okay so this is why the security in the in the building was flawed the the alarm just goes to the guards and the only way the police are alerted is because if the guards press that press the self-destruct button so maybe have more than two guards they had had a security adviser come in and be like you got to change everything you got to have a control room where the guards are sitting in they have access to all this stuff uh-huh and they're like I guess they ignored it for a while yeah and when they finally decided what are you some kind of security expert at 2:28 a.m. the robbers returned to the security counter they made a second check on the guards in the basement they've been removed tapes that captured their movement outside the side door and in other places in the museum after 13 minutes they readied for their leave taking the art to their vehicle in two separate trips there were witnesses who recalled seeing the thieves near the museum sitting in a red hatchback a hatchback yeah no I started out with the costumes and I thought we were gonna take all the heist boxes you know like a big rendezvous maybe a helicopter or some kind of a point where they ripped their moustaches off getting away with five hundred million dollars is disappointing but still very embarrassed heard here first you get away with five hundred million dollars that's cool but you don't do what with some pizzazz Shana's disome how hard is it to rip off a mustache I mean they also they even had a moment a really badass moment where he said we're not arresting you we're robbing you of the 13 items taken noteworthy pieces included three Rembrandt's and bizarrely a gilded filiol Eagle from a Napoleonic banner outside the tapestry room they tried taking a fourth Rembrandt but it was apparently too hard to remove skipping to about four hours later sometime between 6:45 and 8:16 a.m. the to morning shift guards showed up to work unable to enter the museum prompting the deputy security director to call the police at 8:30 a.m. the police showed up and discovered the two night security guards handcuffed in the basement despite wearing gloves which prevented leaving fingerprints the thieves didn't cover their faces which let the guards get a good look at them however the security guard abbath could not recall what the men look like when asked by the Boston Police Abbott recalls that the police sketch quote was awful and quote though in 2005 Abbott mentioned quotes one of them look like Colonel Klink on Hogan's Heroes that's all I can remember end quote oh it's heroes yeah the best he seems like the most over-the-top cinematic security guard yeah in history yeah like I couldn't write this man no he's a cartoon some wonder why the thieves left behind pieces that were clearly worth more like a Michelangelo in a Titian and why did they spend so much time trying to take such an obscure object as the filiol eagle I always wonder what do you do with it the art yes because it is hard to solve you can't just hop pop on eBay be like I've got a few Rembrandt's lying around buy it now at 1 million yeah that doesn't work you got a what do you sell it to other criminals did Saddam Hussein buy stolen art back in the day I don't know well my knowledge I don't do it these days I have no idea man my knowledge of Amazon and eBay is quite extensive but when it comes to the black market I'm pretty not a lot there I don't really know how it works maybe they do have a Buy It Now auction Satan was like oh how bid it again dammit Kim one interesting development occurred in April of 1994 when the museum received an anonymous letter claiming to know the location of the art the author seemed to have a great knowledge of the pieces stolen and the art world in general the anonymous tip restate that the pieces were safe in a controlled environment but the museum had to act quickly because a buyer in another country who was unaware that the pieces were stolen could purchase them and claim legal ownership the writer asked for 2.6 million dollars for facilitating the return of the artwork the museum agreed the museum then received a second letter the author was pleased they were interested in negotiating but was discouraged by the local law state and federal authorities intervening the writer openly wondered if they were trying to arrest them man on top of recovering the art they wrote in all-caps quote you cannot have both end quote the tipper also added that even if they see no way of falling through with the negotiations they would give some clues to the whereabouts of the art they've never heard from the author since I think they probably knew some details that made the museum think okay this is legit mm-hmm so who knows maybe they got cold feet yeah it's nerve-racking being the middleman there that seems like a rendezvous you would have to go to where you're looking over your shoulder the whole time looking up at the windows you gotta expect that they're gonna have that though you don't hand it over random you're handing over five hundred million dollars worth of goods it's a fair amount so you gotta expect a couple badges there that being said let's get into the theories the first theory is that a thief named Brian McDevitt was responsible for the crime McDevitt had committed a similar art robbery in the eighties where he hijacked a FedEx truck and dosed the driver with either wearing the uniform and carrying duct tape McDevitt plan to find museum employees at the Hyde Collection in Glens Falls New York and cut paintings from their frames hilariously McDevitt and his accomplices got stuck in traffic and arrived after the museum closed the spoiling their plans McDevitt served a few months in jail for attempted robbery McDevitt also lived about a 10-minute drive away from the Gardner Museum at the time of the highest he was questioned by the FBI in 1992 and later in front of a grand jury his lawyer told the globe that his client know nothing about the crime you know this was no this was no small change robbery attempt he did use a costume he did use a costume he had oh he does have a flair for the theatrical proclivity costumes mmm I like that so maybe maybe talk of mustaches in that one I didn't look into that oh maybe do a little more research okay well the mustache front yeah I'll make sure it I'll write that down you let me get that pin actually I don't care the second theory is a classic that the heist was an inside job this would explain how the thieves knew where the only alarm button was located and also their knowledge that the artwork did not have anti-theft devices the FBI claimed that security guard Richard II abbath has not been ruled out as a suspect the suspicion goes beyond abbath being poor at his job as mentioned before abbath notably could not recall the faces of the robbers shortly after the heist I don't know how I would describe your face to someone I'd just say yeah oh you had a nose sort of looks like a cartoon gopher yeah if I had to describe yours I would say first off do you have some paper that could fold out because you're gonna need a lot of real estate to cover this guy's head yeah it's huge probably the size of most barn doors also despite the thieves failure to destroy motion sensor equipment the motion sensors oddly didn't record the thieves on the first floor where a piece was stolen but that same equipment picked up Abbot's around in that room before the thieves arrived abbath also broke security protocol by granting the disguise policeman entry museum policy prohibits letting an unauthorized personnel even police from entering the museum abbott states he was unaware of this policy yet this wasn't the first time Abbott had broken protocol and one of the museum's New Year's Eve parties haven't snuck in some friends which to be fair seems fairly innocuous but that doesn't apply to his third break of protocol a video released two years ago shows abbath letting in an unauthorized visitor the night before the heist law enforcement officials believe this person may have been scanning the area for a dry run avid says he does not remember this visitor despite being caught on tape nonetheless in 2015 Abbott stated in an interview that he's still angry about that night yeah it's fishy that's something you would remember even if you're sort of intoxicated or out of your mind I imagine he wasn't on the job and so high or drunk that he's blacked out yeah otherwise what do I even going into work you also said it yourself to how much activity you have at this job of the nightshift in the museum nothing's happened how many times are you getting up other than they go pee and get water I you would remember oh yeah I let that dude in right I like that this might be a sort of a Keyser söze situation where he's where he's like this stone hip he was like I don't know man and then he starts walking down the street his posture just straightens oh yeah yeah yeah walks home to all his beautiful art yes the third theory comes from Dutch private investigator are at their brand an expert in international art crimes in his impressive endeavors to recover stolen art brand has posed as a Texas oil millionaire a representative for sheiks and princes as well as a general criminal in one instance he negotiated with criminal gangs to recover 25 million dollars of artwork so you get it guys gets the job done yeah unlike our boy Sisi who went to go get the job done and then became a job himself by missing own missing this man don't worry CeCe's on the case oops I've been murdered someone come find me now don't worry help has arrived help in 1991 about a year after the heist are at their brand acquired images of the stolen artwork in storage somewhere in Holland in 2010 brand heard that the pieces were in possession of a member of the Irish Republican Army after working on the case with the FBI for roughly 12 years brand theorizes that the pieces were originally stolen by small-time thieves who sold the pieces to us gang members who then possibly in the mid-1990s shipped the pieces off to Ireland to some top-ranking irish republican army commanders brand estimates that he can get the pieces back in a matter of months he will not give details as to why but believes that the investigation and leads are quote making the haystack smaller and quote FBI spokeswoman Kristen cetera stated quote the FBI believes with high confidence that we have identified those responsible for the theft even though we still don't know where the art is currently located it's not just that they're you know they made off with a lot of money right yeah but if they stole precious Rembrandt's yeah lost for the culture the culture that's like someone stealing every copy of Forrest Gump yeah you can never watch Forrest Gump again I love it that they got is theatric as they could would have liked some mustache you know obviously wanted to cry in the light and the telephone like a guy in a telephone pole but I like that they got in there they essentially in no victims here yeah aside from the rich people they stole from which hey look steal from the rich do it you're a robber be Robin Hood what's he who do you think did it what's your I think it had to be an inside job yeah mainly because the button knowing that button which I guess is kind of like something you would assume anyway there must be some kind of master control button but knowing exactly where it is I guess you would guess it's on a control desk but knowing that they were in the midst of updating security and that there was someone who was led into the museum unauthorized the Red Door you're not supposed to go through the night before on tape and the motion detector not really going off very fishy it's it definitely seems like something that would be an inside job and wouldn't even be that that hard because no one seems to be paying attention in this museum well if you've got any tips email them to us and we'll pass them along yeah yeah Anthony amore the director of security at the Museum commented that stolen pieces are either recovered soon after the crime or about a generation later for many years the museum was offering a five million dollar reward for information that could lead to a return of the artwork in good condition and the offer was even doubled to a ten million dollar reward for a short period but expired on December 31st 2017 the statute of limitations for the prosecution of theft passed in the mid 1990s in 2005 Boston's US attorney said he will not prosecute whoever comes forward with the paintings whether that day comes remains to be seen but for now the identity of the burglars and the location of the stolen Gardner Museum artwork will remain unsolved [Music]

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Views: 6,318,354

Rating: 4.9546018 out of 5

Keywords: Buzzfeed unsolved, BuzzFeed, unsolved, mystery, unsolved mystery, unexplained, investigation, investigate, investigative, true crime, crime, criminal, theory, theories, case, cold case, cold-case, detective, detectives, scary, spooky, creepy, eerie, weird, strange, haunted, ghost, monster, demon, creepypasta, supernatural, paranormal, heist, theft, thieves, stolen, art, pictures, painting, paintings, museum, Gardner, guard, alarm

Id: mkxQXxKSWKQ

Length: 19min 1sec (1141 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 02 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/QueenShewolf]

Inside job. Someone who knew about that button chose to rob the museum on a night when the person with the least experience was on duty.

[u/Turkishspaghetti]

"the pieces were in possession from the IRA" Tiocfaidh ár lá! after we look at this art