FBI Moves Closer to Solving Infamous Boston Museum Heist

Federal investigators said Monday that they now know who was behind the spectacular theft of 13 masterpieces from Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum 23 years ago, The Boston Globe reports.

Summarizing the investigation on the anniversary of the heist, the Boston FBI office did not identify any suspects but said some of the haul—which included works by Rembrandt, Manet, and Vermeer and has been collectively valued at $500-million—was offered for black-market sale in Philadelphia about a decade ago.

The bureau is mounting a new information and advertising campaign to raise awareness of the crime and the $5-million reward the Gardner is offering for return of the paintings. The museum has kept empty frames hanging in the spots from which the works were stolen by two men who, disguised as Boston police, talked their way past security guards after hours on the night of March 18, 1990.