Art thieves from Boston to Beijing
laud him as their Rembrandt.

Excerpts from "The Perfect Plan: The Gardner Heist"
A manuscript in progress, reprinted here by permission of the author, Tom Green.
Copyright©2009 Tom Green. All rights reserved.

from Chapter Three
Casing the joint & the strange visits of Dr. Joseph
What to steal, how to do it, and how to get away clean.

Enter Dr. Joseph:

"The Gardner Museum had a nemesis stalking its future that went by the name of Dr. Michael Joseph, an esteemed art historian with a Harvard PhD. The good doctor was not only an art scholar but also a distinguished connoisseur and collector with a penchant for priceless Japanese swords, especially those in his own two hundred-piece collection, the artistic merit and finery of which stood shoulder to shoulder with the best in the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts. With an encyclopedic knowledge of every museum great and small from Toronto to Washington, DC, and although a warmly anticipated and engaging guest at nearly all, Dr. Joseph reserved a particular fondness for the Gardner’s galleries, especially its Dutch Room.

"Tweedy and slightly unkempt looking, Dr. Joseph’s appearance was that of a benign academic, who was well liked, even charming, to colleagues and staff at the Gardner. With his button-down collar, wool tie, worsted slacks and soft-soled brogans, he looked the part of a worldly-wise patron of the arts, comfortably attired for both long lectures or hours spent hobnobbing galleries. This ill wind blowing through the Gardner’s treasure rooms in the guise of Dr. Michael Joseph was in actuality Myles Connor, art thief extraordinaire, straight out of central casting, and right on past the guards at the front door. Almost a caricature of a dotty professor, yet by most accounts a very believable one, his disguise was meant to garner instant respect and disarming credulity from colleagues and museum curators—and most especially from guards and security personnel—which is exactly the effect it achieved." pp. 53-54

"Holding a hand up to pause the flow of his interview, the five-foot seven-inch Connor looked around at the small production staff gathered in Marty Leppo’s office. His famous shock of bright red hair had dulled over the years, now receding backwards and half turned to gray. “Before I go on,” he said, waiting until he had everyone’s full attention. “Before I go on about my alter ego, this persona of mine, this Dr. Michael Joseph character, I need to say that I enjoyed being him. I enjoyed very much talking about art, sharing art knowledge…sharing myself with others. I sincerely enjoyed that very, very much.”

“But, that being said,” he added, with wry a smile “I was surrounded by a billion dollars of art just waiting for a good enough plan on how to rob the place. And I felt eminently capable of devising one.”" p. 59

Samurai in the Dutch Room:

"Around him hung a roomful of Rembrandts and a glorious Vermeer perched nearby at a bench table. The portico in the Dutch Room opened onto the Gardner’s magnificently lush courtyard of greenery, plants in urns, and colorful flowers that enveloped Old World statuary and monuments. In the center of it all was the Roman mosaic floor taken from the 1st century Villa Livia. He remembered reading somewhere that the mosaic’s acquisition had been suspicious, maybe even acquired illegally. That made him wonder all the more as to what else in the great palace of art was suspect. It tickled him to ponder that what he was contemplating to steal just might be an act of re-stealing previously stolen art. Like a moveable feast, stolen art would be on the move once again, passing from the hands of one thief and into those of another…and so on and so on." p. 64

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from Chapter Four
1:24 AM: the heist begins
$6 million a minute: not bad work if you can get it.

Including travel time from room to room and through galleries
as well as twice checking on the guards—the thieves had less than 52 minutes
to secure 13 works of art, which averages out to be 4 minutes per piece.

Timing is everything:

The Unlucky 13

PAINTINGS: Vermeer “The Concert,” 1658 Rembrandt “The Storm on the Sea of Galilee,” 1633 Rembrandt “A Lady and Gentleman in Black,” 1633 Manet “Chez Tortoni,” 1878 Flinck “Landscape With An Obelisk,” 1638 DRAWINGS & SKETCHES: Degas program for an artistic soiree (2), 1884 Degas “Three Mounted Jockeys” Degas “Cortege aux Environs de Florence” Degas “La Sortie de Pesage” Rembrandt “Self-Portrait,” c. 1634 OBJECTS: Chinese bronze beaker, Ku, 13th century B.C. Napoleonic flagpole finial, 1813 Click: Images of "Unlucky 13"

"They stood in the Dutch Room playing their flashlights against the walls knowing in advance what the beams would reveal. A Lady and Gentleman in Black was exactly where it was supposed to be. To it’s left, The Storm on the Sea of Galilee. Behind them, the large Rembrandt Self-Portrait, and over on the bench table, the Vermeer. One by one the chosen were spotted and confirmed. Nothing had moved an inch since Isabella’s death in 1924; nothing had moved an inch since Dr. Joseph in 1978; and nothing had moved an inch since their plans had been set into motion in late 1989. It seemed all too perfect, almost surreal: a half billion dollars in art just waiting to be pulled from its perches and packed up for a getaway. What could be simpler? The heist plan was a masterpiece, but they’d have to hurry to make good on it." p. 74

"Taking stock of their score from the Dutch Room was impressive. They had stacked up and ready to go Jan Vermeer’s The Concert, three Rembrandts, and maybe a fourth Rembrandt with the Landscape with an Obelisk (although since 1981 it was a doubtful attribution to Rembrandt and was more than likely by Goevert Flinck, Rembrandt’s student). But hey, take it anyway; things could change. And besides, the good doctor had pegged it as a Rembrandt in 1978. Do the right thing, they must have mused weighing the addition of another small painting to their pile of loot, just take it. What’s the harm? Four paintings, the etching, and the Ku, not a bad haul for one night’s work. Half the entire value of a billion dollar museum was in their hands, ready to go down a clean 39 steps to the courtyard below and then out the side door to the street. But wait; there was more to be done.

"For the two thieves, it must have seemed so out of place to still have more thieving to do. Every minute they lingered in the museum meant a possible police car at the door and bullhorns screaming for them to come out with their hands up. When you have enough, don’t get greedy, so says an unwritten law of stealing someone’s property. Every minute delaying a swift exit is another minute that leads closer to a prison cell. Here is where the original Dr. Joseph plan changed direction. The first heist of the Gardner was over; the second heist was about to begin. And it is at this point that a new element enters into the convoluted mystery of the Gardner heist." p. 86

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Click: Diagram of Gardner Layout

from Chapter Two

The Unlucky 13
Why me? The backstories to the Gardner's abducted masterpieces.

Every picture tells a story:

"In the dead of night thirteen hostages were dragged out to a waiting vehicle and then driven away. They were never seen or heard from again. There was no ransom note left behind, no disguised voice on a telephone afterward, no hoped-for future rendezvous for an exchange, and no closure for the desperate family left behind. Of those kidnapped, all were foreigners: five Dutch, seven French, and one Chinese. From a total of 2,500 potential victims, only these thirteen were abducted. Why?" p. 38

See "The Perfect Plan: The Gardner Heist" for more.

Coming soon, more excerpts from The Perfect Plan...plus an entire downloadable
book chapter in pdf format. Look for them!