Gardner Museum Heist —Blog
Gardner Heist Aftermath
Post-Truth Makes Camp in the Athens of America (Part Two)
Prior to his arrest, Connor was a fugitive for a different stolen art crime, He was a no-show at the first day of his trial five months earlier, which had been slated to begin in the week after the MFA robbery, charged with interstate transportation of stolen property.
The previous year was arrested Connor trying to sell five of the paintings and other items worth $200,000 stolen from the Woolworth estate in Monmouth, Maine, to an undercover FBI agent, in the Cape Cod town of Mashpee, MA, less than two months after the Memorial Day weeken buglary, in 1974.The paintings included three works by N.C. Wyeth, and one by his son Andrew Wyeth, as well as a reproduction of an Andrew Wyeth painting. https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1928&dat=19740719&id=2HggAAAAIBAJ&sjid=iWcFAAAAIBAJ&pg=2308,2929182
At that time, works by N.C. Wyeth, were deemed more valuable, than his son, Andrew. Known today, for works such as Christina's World, and a series of works known as "The Helgal Pictures," Andrew Wyeth's reknown has far surpassed his father, whose most famous work is a cover illustration of the adventure novel, "Treasure Island." But those who want to inflate Connor's standing in the world of art tell how five Wyeth paintings were stolen as if the name "Wyeth" itself is proof that the burglary was the handiwork of criminal masterminds. (And as if a copy of painting is the same as the originall.0 In fact the estate was so wide open the thieves made off with two enormous antique grandfather clock as well. An elderly widow, Mrs. Norman B. Woolworth went to Europe and left her remote Maine estate unguarded. It had already been sucessfully burglarized in a similr fashion just two years earlier, with $250,000 worth of art stolen. The paintings were valuable, but not exactly what the term "five Wyeth paintings" suggest a half century later. As with nearly everything related to Myles Connor, the truth is a feeble shadow of the legend.There is only Connor's word that the he was present at the Woolworth estate burglary. He claims to have done it with Robert Donati. "It was Donati's job," Connor said.
But Donat was arrested by the U.S. Secret Service in October of 1973 for receiving stolen property and possession of counterfeit bills, after he sold a Federal agent $515,000 worth of stolen US Treasury notes. The Feds had nabbed Donati, wheil he was out on bail, under indictment for arson of a Medford drycleaning store, and while still on parole, for a 1965 armed holdup of Boston furrier.It seems doubtful that a federal judge would have released Donati on personal recognisance, under these circumstances. But Connor wrote that Donati was there, and was the one who, a short time later, found a buyer for the art, the FBI.
"When he [Donati] told me he'd found a buyer for the Wyeths, I made certain assumptions. 'We can trust this guy, right?' I asked. Bobby nodded. 'Absolutely.'"
Donat's court date on the federal charges was scheduled for two weeks after Connor was arrested in a Cape Cod shopping plaza with the stolen art from the Woolworth Estate.
"World's Greatest Art Thief," played by "the World's Greatest government informant, Bobby Donati. https://gardnerheist.com/donati_parole_violating.pdf https://casetext.com/case/united-states-v-imbruglia Perhaps it was something more than Connor's reputation, ten years later, that led Massachusetts Secretary of State,Michael J. Connolly, to suspect Connor of being behind the theft of the the first page of the 355 year old Massachusetts Bay Charter, along with the King's original wax seal, from the State Archives Museum, despite the fact that Connor was at that time incarcerated in state prison. "I have no doubt that Myles Connor from a cell inside MCI-Cedar Junction, engineered the theft," Secretary of State Michael J. Connolley said at the time of theft. https://gardnerheist.com/Connor_far_from_scene_gardner_heist_scene_Boston_Globe_Tue__Mar_20__1990_.pdf The two items were recovered twelve years apart in different locations, the Charter just seven months later. Both items were recovered in the possession of individuals strongly linked to Myles Connor, one of them William Youngworth. "Connor was never charged in the charter caper, but there was little doubt among police or the underworld that it had been his score."https://archive.vanityfair.com/article/share/a90ee402-d5ed-442c-94d3-00eb4a2448ae Five years later, after he was released from prison (again) and had moved to Kentucky, Connor was arrested in yet another FBI sting, this time over a thousand miles from Boston, in Bloomington, IL. And he was charged with selling another item from the Woolworth Estate burglary, an enormous 18th century Simon Willard grandfather clock, (if that clock could tell more than time...) as well as two of the three paintings stolen from the Mead Art Museum at Amherst College in Massachusetts, a month before the Boston MFA robbery, in 1975.
Charged with trying to sell these items, as well as a kilo of cocaine, to an undercover FBI agent, who was going by the name of Tony Graziano, Connor had been in jail, since March 10, 1989, for over a year before the Gardner heist. He had pled guilty to the charges and was awaiting sentencing for months by the time that hisotric robbery took place.
It was an ideal time to make a deal, had Connor anything to offer related to the case. But despite his extensive art theft pedigree, extensively summarized in news stories and charge sheets spanning decades, and three delays in his sentencing, Connor had nothing to offer. Connor wrote in his 2010 book, that "in March of 1990," and "days" after the Gardner heist, federal agents had interviewed him in his cell in the Sangamon County jail.That claim, however, is contradicated by reporting from that time. "Dozens of prison inmates have called the FBI with tips about the Gardner Museum art heist, but one-time art thief Myles J. Connor Jr. isn't one of them." the Boston Globe reported on May 13, almost two months after the heist on May 13, 2020,
"'We've made no attempt to talk to Myles Connor,' said FBI supervisory special agent Edward M. Quinn. Adds Connor's defense attorney, Greg Collins: 'He has not been requested to meet with the FBI, and I am pretty sure he has not been in contact with them.'"https://gardnerheist.com/1000tips.html It would seem logical that the feds would have spoken to Connor. He certainly had experience. At the very least, he could offer some insight that might prove useful. The goal of getting inside the mind of an experienced art criminal is one of the ways Anthony Amore justified his still close association with Myles Connor, initiated, decades after the Gardner heist, although he acknowledged "I like behing around him [Myles Connor]" too. In the same 2017 interview, Amore explained: "Guys that hunt serial killers talk to serial killers, well I hunt art thieves so I talk to art thieves"
https://gardnerheist.com/Zak_K_0329_Myles.mp3 Certainly it would have been worth exploring, to see if Myles Connor at the age 47, having spent most of his adult life in prison, would be willing to share his views on the case, with the people who would be deciding his fate. As it was, the Judge wound up giving Connor twenty years, double the recommended sentence under federal sentencing guidelines of the time.
But interviewing Connor in his cell, never mind going to a Bruce Springsteen concert with him as Amore had done, was not deemed the way to approach the Gardner heist mission, whatever that mission was, in the early days after the heist.
Or even in later days. But by 1992, two years after the heist though, from his cell in Lompoc,
CA, Connor was actively working
to parlay his reputation as a
stolen art trafficker, a kind of art crime expert, to help out his cellmate, Rocco Ellis.
With Connor's help, Ellis sought
to use the two names given to him by Connor, Bobby Donati and David Houghton
as leverage with federal officials in Boston. The two former associates of Connor,
were the men responsible for the Gardner
Heist, according to Connor, Ellis told authorities.
"By that time both men were dead, Donati in an unsolved gangland slaying and the 350 pounds
Houghton of natural causes." But why was Connor sharing this information through Ellis, to help Ellis,
instead of going directly to authorities to help himself?
https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/1998/03/biggest-art-heist-us-history
When Houghton died, Youngworth had been entrusted with Connor's horde of stolen and acquired art and artifacts. And when Youngworth came forward to negotiate a return of the stolen Gardner Museum art, one of his demands, in addition to the reward, was that Myles Connor be released early, with two and a half years of his prison left on his sentence, suggesting that Youngworth's initial claim that Donati and Houghton, like Rocco Ellis had said, were responsible for the heist, was something that originated with Youngworth by way of Myles Connor as it had with Rocco Ellis.
But the feds were as unpersuaded as ever by Youngworth's story pointing to Donati and Houghton. Years later, in the 2005 Gardner heist documentary, Stolen, Youngworth said: "The FBI takes this public posture that 'listen we just want the stuff back and we don't really care how it comes back.' That's not true. I mean I have sat there behind closed doors and they only have one agenda the only thing they want is names." Clearly the names of the deceased Donati and Houghton did not do the trick. Still the feds were intrigued by Youngworth's offer and facilitated a meeting between the two friends who both had been incarcerated in separate locations at the time of the Gardner heist. They transferred Connor from the McKean Federal Prison in Lewis Run, Pennsylvania, up to the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Center in Central Falls, Rhode Island. There Youngworth met for an extended period with Connor on two occasions.At one point "Federal prosecutors sent Mr. Youngworth and his lawyer, Martin K. Leppo, a draft immunity statement." https://www.nytimes.com/1997/12/06/us/new-turn-in-a-twisted-tale-of-stolen-art.html
According to reporting by Tom Mashberg, in Vanity Fair, in 1998, it was around this time that "Connor, in jail in Rhode Island, was learning in greater and greater detail how the custodian of his possessions [William Youngworth] had allegedly robbed him blind."
"Later, speaking of Youngworth’s treachery, Connor said 'He has stolen 99.9 percent of my belongings. At one point I wanted to live in a baronial Tudor mansion with all my things around me. Perhaps it’s a blessing. All I need now is a Japanese teahouse.'“
Perhaps this was the movitation for Youngworth trying to get a reduced sentence for Connor, to placate Connor repay him somehow for what he owed him. In interviews, Youngworth simply said he was doing it out of loyalty to my oldest and dearest friend.”Surely there were ways that Connor's input might prove helpful, but it is hard to see any tangible, essential role, for which an incarcerated Myles Connor was needed to make a potential deal.
But whatever assistance Connor provided, it proved insufficient. The feds prevented a deal that might well have been made for some of the most important works between Youngworth and the museum, if not for their interference in the negotiations. ''The Feds don't want it to happen,'' he asserted in a thick Boston accent. ''The only true thing they ever told me is that they want to get it before me.'' https://web.archive.org/web/20150527070322/http://www.nytimes.com/1997/09/27/arts/on-the-murky-trail-of-stolen-art.html?pagewanted=1
The real stumbling block was that the Feds suspected, or knew, that those responsible for the theft were going to profit from the return of the art.
The Boston Globe reported three years later, in 2000. that there are a few absolutes that the FBI, and Interpol, the international law enforcement agency, follow in negotiating the return of stolen artwork, and foremost among them is that no one who was involved in a theft or who acquired the paintings knowing they were stolen can benefit financially from their return." https://graphics.boston.com/globe/magazine/2000/12-17/featurestory1.shtml
But the FBI was not offering a reward. The Museuem was. It is not uncommon in the least for museums to pay ransom money, to get their art back. And the Gardner Museum had demonstrated their willingness to give in to a ransom demand on more than once occassion. When Hawley, accompanied by museum board member Arnold Hiatt, held a back-channel meeting, with Youngworth at a hotel in New York, in September 1997, Hiatt loaned Youngworth $10,000 to aid the recovery. https://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/theater-art/2015/03/14/for-gardner-museum-director-art-heist-set-off-year-odyssey-false-leads-and-loss/FksnFccbQiNonVdYrlOF2K/story.html
Over ten years later in a 2005 on camera appeal from Hawley on CNN, the museum direct made an "an overture to an anonymous letter writer eleven years ago who seemed legitimate.:
I'm particularly interested in hearing from that person who had, I think, a real concern about our getting the work back," she said. The anonymous letter writer refers to an individual who had sent a ransom note to the museum in 1994. The person offered to return the Gardner art for $2.6 million, along with assurances that the FBI would not try to make an arrest. This was another negotiation, in addition to the offer made by William Youngworth, for the return of stolen Gardner art, that was disuprted by federal investigators, revealed in the ransom not writer's second corresondance to the museum a several days later:“I am fully aware of the massive alert that the federal, state and Boston authorities went on last Friday afternoon” seeking to make an arrest while the negotiations commenced.
“I think it important to say right now that you have a choice, that is you may be able to apprehend a low-level participant who has been kept in the dark or you can recapture the entire collection intact. YOU CANNOT HAVE BOTH.” Hawley was dumbfounded. She had impressed on [ Richard S. Swensen, the FBI’s agent in charge, and others at the FBI her hope that the letter writer was legitimate and that everyone needed to follow his instructions to the letter." The museum never heard from the indivudal again. Master Thieves by Stephen Kurkjian [page 80] In 2000 the Guardian reported on the Youngworth offer that "many officials at the Gardner museum, and also some officers at the FBI, did favor some form of compromise, but those higher up in the legal establishment had no desire to send such a message to the criminal fraternity at large. The attorney general's office in Washington warned against pandering to "'cultural terrorism,'" after having accused Youngworth three years earlier of bargaining in bad faith. "The Feds don't want it to happen, the only true thing they ever told me is that they want to get it [the stolen Gardner art] before me," Youngworth told the New York Times.https://web.archive.org/web/20150527070322/http://www.nytimes.com/1997/09/27/arts/on-the-murky-trail-of-stolen-art.html?pagewanted=1
Also three years later the Boston Globe reported: "Despite a $5 million reward offered by the museum, the [Gardner heist] case remains unsolved. FBI officials say that suggests that the artwork remains in the possession of people who either participated in the theft or were involved in the fencing of the paintings.
That's pretty weak supporting evidence that the thieves or people very close to the robbery still controlled the art, it does that the FBI believed that they did, and Youngworth who at one point claimed to be serving as "a broker" of the stolen Gardner art, was not able to convince the FBI that the people who took the art did not stand to profit from their return.
"Unless such individuals were willing to return the paintings without a reward, it is unlikely that the FBI would be willing to deal with them. There are a few absolutes that the FBI and Interpol, the international law enforcement agency, follow in negotiating the return of stolen artwork, and foremost among them is that no one who was involved in a theft or who acquired the paintings knowing they were stolen can benefit financially from their return." So nearly eleven years after the heist, the FBI was still suggesting that the there was a very real possibility that the orginal thieves or people who worked with them still had the art, something they would find unacceptable, which explains their interference in the attempts of William Youngworth in 1997, and a mysterious writer of a ransom not to the museum in 1994 to negotiate a return of the art.In then end, no deals was made. The Museum continued to pursue Youngworth, who faced harsh prosecutions he likely would not have been subject to, if he had never tried to make a deal for a return of the Gardner art, for a few years.
Connor had to finish out his sentence, but he was now linked to the Gardner heist in the Boston and national media, a connection he would continue to try to work to his advantage both for the rest of is time in prison and when he was released in 2000, but it would be many years before he would see any payoff for his efforts.and Edward "Rocco" Ellis, have alleged in news interviews that Houghton planned the Gardner theft, which happened at a time when both Connor and Youngworth were imprisoned. But lately, Connor and Youngworth have said they would trade their help in recovering the art work for $5 million in museum reward money and leniency from the criminal justice system. Youngworth and Ellis have identified another corpse with a criminal record as one of the Gardner thieves: Robert Donati of Revere, who was found stabbed to death in an automobile trunk in 1991. But, according to sources, Houghton and Donati did not move in the same orbit. Donati was connected to organized crime hoods; Houghton spent his time toiling under car hoods.
The FBI says it has no evidence linking either Houghton or Donati to the crime.If Houghton and Donati knew each other at all, it was through their mutual friend: Connor.
Connor claimed the FBI visited him in March 1990, and that David Houghton arrived "several weeks later."From Connor's 2009 book, page 285, In the Fall of 1990 I was transferred to federal penitentiary in Lompoc, CA." Also in his book he says that "several weeks later [of March 1990] I received an unexpected visitor, David Houghton... "David's visit was the last time I heard from either man [David Houghton or Robert Donati]." So that means Connor's visit with Donati was in Illinois. It would have to have been several months later for him to have been in Lompoc, CA. Connor was sentenced on July 16, 1990 and did not arrive in Lompoc until September of 1990, six months after the Gardner heist.
How I’m 100 percent sure that they Houghton and Donati did it was because David Houghton, who was a longtime friend of mine, flew all the way from Logan Airport to California just to tell me: “We’ve done with. We did it. And we got a bunch paintings, and we’re gonna use a couple of these paintings to bargain you into a reduced sentence.”https://www.wbur.org/lastseen/2018/10/29/i-was-the-one
But no effort was ever made to use any of the stolen art to free Myles Connor.
Last Seen podcast https://www.wbur.org/lastseen/2018/10/29/i-was-the-one in 2018, Myles Connor's co-author, Jenny Siler, acknowledges that Connor has no corroboration for any of his supposed links to the Gardner Heist art, thieves, or of Donati or Houghton's involvement. Both men died in 1991. https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=1851&v=pFxLkDobkiA&feature=youtu.be "My agent told me a bit about him. Of course the hook for getting me involved and sort of getting everyone involved was his [Myles Connor's claimed] connection to the Gardner heist, my introduction came through that." Connor co-author Jenny Siler https://youtu.be/pFxLkDobkiA?t=929 https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=929&v=pFxLkDobkiA&feature=youtu.be https://gardnerheist.com/1000tips.html A news story about Connor described him as an articulate, cultured, charasmatic man. https://gardnerheist.com/Connor_sentenced_Jul_17__1990_.pdf James "Spinney fidgeted at the kitchen table of his parents' Jamaica Plain home, saying that every time the limelight falls on Connor his grief is renewed." Her father James Spinney recalled "digging in the dirt in Northhampton looking for Karen's body before Connor pointed out the exact location of the burial site. Karen T. Spinney father, John, who has attended Connors' two murder trials, and even a sentencing hearing in Illinois, predicuted that any reward money in Connor's pocket would merely "finance another robbery, another scheme." Connor, 54, was once convicted of ordering Sperazza to fatally stab Karen T. Spinney and Susan Webster, two 18-year-olds from J.P. who were stabbed to death in a Quincy apartment in 1975. https://gardnerheist.com/connor_victims_family.pdfhttps://gardnerheist.com/The_Boston_Globe_Fri__Sep_12__1997_.pdf
Amore criticized the New York Times for calling an e-book they put out about the Gardner heist,
"America's Greatest Art Heist." September 7, 2014
Did the NYT really title its book on the Gardner museum theft "America's Greatest Art Heist?
part 1 @Amoream
https://twitter.com/ulrichboser/status/512409397503746048
"Amore only knows of two thieves in history who stole art more than once. One was Adam Worth, a 19th-century crook who inspired the character of Sherlock Holmes’ archenemy, Professor Moriarty.
The other is Massachusetts’ master art burglar, Myles Connor, who stole a Rembrandt from Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts in 1975, then used it to negotiate a reduced sentence for stealing N.C. Wyeth and Andrew Wyeth paintings
from the Woolworth estate in Maine the year before." Anthony Amore is an internationally recognized expert in the field of art crime.
“He’s the greatest art thief who’s ever lived,”
https://web.archive.org/web/20171109161411/https://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/2016/03/13/gardner-museum-heist/
How did the man who said [Time 1:24:00]:“Myles Connor is one of these guys who committed every type
of crime you can imagine. Make a list. Brainstorm on crimes. He can check off every box. You name it.
he's done it, a real bad guy, come to acknowledge that Myles Connor was his good friend,
three years later, and even
have his relationship with Myles Connor in the Boston Globe described as: "In the annals of confounding bromances the genuine affection between Anthony Amore and Myles Connor has to be right up there."
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/03/14/arts/how-gardner-museums-security-head-befriended-greatest-art-thief-that-ever-lived/
https://vimeo.com/78081473 “Myles Connor is one of these guys who committed every type of crime you can imagine. Make a list. Brainstorm on crimes. He can check off every box. You name it. he's done it, a real bad guy. Anthony Amore 11/12/14 Time 45:00 https://archive.org/details/BelmontHistoricalSocietyStealingRembrandts111214CL19
It would be foll hardy to even think about "It would be fool hardy to even think about the Gardner theft without thinking first "It would be fool hardy to even think about the Gardner theft without thinking first Myles Connor."
https://youtu.be/NycWZHORQnw?t=79
Evidently the FBI's Gardner Heist investigation, or Myles Connor himself do not live up to Amore's high estimation of them
because the FBI did not interview Myles Connor at the time of the robbery.
"We've made no attempt to talk to Myles Connor," said FBI supervisory special agent Edward M. Quinn.
Adds Connor's defense attorney, Greg Collins: "He has not been requested to meet with the FBI, and I am pretty sure he has not been in contact with them.
https://gardnerheist.com/1000tips.html
Dozens of prison inmates have called the FBI with tips about the Gardner Museum heist,
but Myles Connor isn't one of them." And: "We've made no attempt to talk to Myles Connor," said FBI supervisory
special agent Edward Quinn. Boston Globe May 13, 1990
There was no machine gun. “As the thieves fled to a waiting car, the armed man fired three shots, hitting no one but adding a movie-scene flourish to what was then thought to be the most expensive art heist in American history.” https://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/17/arts/design/17remb.html
Amore: When I give lectures...https://youtu.be/NycWZHORQnw?t=106 "They escaped in a car driven by an accomplice after they pistol whipped another guard."
https://gardnerheist.com/gardnerstuff/MFA_Police_optimistic_of_break_in_.pdf The paintings was stolen April 14, [1975] at about 12:30 p.m. by two men who held one museum guard at gunpoint, struck another, and fired three shots before fleeing in a car driven by a third man.
https://gardnerheist.com/gardnerstuff/MFA_Reward_offered_to_retrieve_Rem.pdf
White male, about 20 years of age, 5 foot 9, about 140 pounds with long blond hair. https://gardnerheist.com/gardnerstuff/mfa75clip.jpg
In 1993, after the deaths of Houghton and Donati, Ellis began shopping information about the art theft to federal
prosecutors. But when they refused to move him to the jail of his choice, he clammed up. After the museum raised
its reward last year from $1 million to $5 million, Connor authorized Ellis to reopen negotiations.
https://gardnerheist.com/gardnerstuff/Myles_Connor_Ellis.pdf
Connor is only 5-6.
https://gardnerheist.com/Connor_Ex-thief_says_his_collecting.pdf Monkouski tried to stop them as they ran toward the turnstiles INSIDE the entrance and one of them clubbed him with a pistol butt.
https://gardnerheist.com/gardnerstuff/mfa_news.clip.jpg
"They left the scene “in a black and gold Oldsmobile or Buick” Boston Globe April 14, 1975 afternoon edition.
The car police believed was used in the getaway was found at 4 a.m. on Station Street near Roxbury Crossing. It had been reported stolen earlier by Norwood police."
https://gardnerheist.com/1975_Boston_Police,_expect_break_in.pdf
Given that Myles views much of his life in a cinematic vein, the following account of how executed the robbery of a Rembrandt from the Boston Museum of Fine Art in 1975 illustrates his M.O." With a footnote that explains that this is Connor's account taken from his book and interviews, showing the "M.O." of authors Mashberg and Amore, more than it does Connor's, except in telling tall tales, in that none of the other thefts in his book, were robberies, they were all either burglaries or thefts where he snuck items of museums and collections.
The book is clearly shaded by Connor's version of the truth. https://archive.boston.com/ae/books/articles/2009/06/05/art_thief_tells_a_lot_to_his_own_tune/ Braude: The lawyer who I mentioned before said his client knew, has disclosed his identity to the FBI. Who is it? I can't say who it is but I would say it's compelling. What's compelling about it? I can't get into too many details but I would say the George Burke leads meets the description. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1EVjKp90ug&t=175sABC News incorrectly identified this guard, Joe Mulvey, as the unauthorized visitor, reporting that the FBI is seeking the public's help identifying this man, with an image of Mulvey from the video showing. You can still see it on youtube. https://youtu.be/rYk5LbTfq4g?t=27
“What you see in the video does not comport with what we have been told in the past,” Anthony Amore, the museum’s director of security, told the Globe. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/08/07/surveillance-video-raises-questions-and-possible-clues-in-25-year-old-museum-mystery/ Braude: What isn't clear? What doesn't it comport with? Amore well it wasn't made clear to us in the beginning. That someone had been let in without authorization, the night prior. Braude: By whom? Amore: The people who in the museum that evening, the guard. Braude: Abath. https://youtu.be/V1EVjKp90ug?t=131
Anthony M. Amore, director of security at the Gardner since 2005, pointed out that the visit took place right after Mr. Abath’s partner left the guard station to do his rounds. The two fake police officers, who were admitted 24 hours later, after claiming through the intercom that they were looking into a disturbance, also entered the museum just after Mr. Abath’s partner left him to go do rounds, Mr. Amore added.
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/07/arts/design/25-years-after-gardner-museum-heist-video-raises-questions.html
The precise strategy of investigators in releasing the video is unclear since, as the New York Times reported in February, the FBI feels confident it has already identified the two thieves. My first step was obvious. Myles Connor is the world’s greatest art thief June 2, 2016
https://www.golocalprov.com/patriarca-papers/the-raymond-rembrandt-guest-mindsetter-anthony-amore "Investigators said do not believe that the man shown entering the museum on the tape is either of those two suspects." The precise strategy of investigators in releasing the video is unclear since, as the New York Times reported in February, the FBI feels confident it has already identified the two thieves, both long dead, who posed as police officers. "I know where this guy is and I know they're going to go speak to him." Local lawyer says client can ID man in Gardner heist video https://youtu.be/9Vt0oBsQHsk?t=11 Burke said his former client – who works in the antiques business – watched the video with a co-worker. “They both recognized him,’’ Burke said. “At one point for a split second, the video shows a glimpse of the face. They both concluded it was him.’’ https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2015/08/10/attorney-says-former-client-can-id-man-in-gardner-video/ “This is not an aha moment,” he said. “We hope it generates something, but the focus is on recovering the paintings.” https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/nation/2015/08/08/retiring-boston-fbi-chief-shares-some-things-but-not-all/BDZjxwyvJgYJvvqhJhGBzI/story.html He said FBI agents who investigated the case had been aware of the video for years but had judged releasing it to the public of limited value, primarily because at no time is the man’s face shown on camera. “Over many months we have engaged in an exhaustive re-examination of the original evidence in this case. Our aim has been to ensure that all avenues have been explored in the continuing quest to recover these artworks,” said United States Attorney Carmen Ortiz. “Today we are releasing video images from the night before the theft—images which have not previously been seen by the public—with the hope of identifying an unauthorized visitor to the museum. With the public’s help, we may be able to develop new information that could lead to the recovery of these invaluable works of art.” https://web.archive.org/web/20150809231716/pressherald.com/2015/08/06/new-video-on-major-art-heist-released-as-author-appears-in-portland “Over many months we have engaged in an exhaustive re-examination of the original evidence in this case. Our aim has been to ensure that all avenues have been explored in the continuing quest to recover these artworks,” said United States Attorney Carmen Ortiz. “Today we are releasing video images from the night before the theft—images which have not previously been seen by the public—with the hope of identifying an unauthorized visitor to the museum. With the public’s help, we may be able to develop new information that could lead to the recovery of these invaluable works of art.” https://www.fbi.gov/contact-us/field-offices/boston/news/press-releases/historic-footage-connected-to-gardner-museum-burglary-released-public-assistance-sought We have, through the great investigative work, identified who did this heist, and both those individuals are deceased,” Kowenhoven said. “So now the focus of the investigation is the recovery of the art.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/2-suspected-of-boston-art-theft-worth-500-million-are-dead-fbi-says/2015/08/07/b6cf9846-3d3a-11e5-9c2d-ed991d848c48_story.html “This is not an aha moment,” he said. “We hope it generates something, but the focus is on recovering the paintings.” He said FBI agents who investigated the case had been aware of the video for years but had judged releasing it to the public of limited value, primarily because at no time is the man’s face shown on camera. https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/nation/2015/08/08/retiring-boston-fbi-chief-shares-some-things-but-not-all/BDZjxwyvJgYJvvqhJhGBzI/story.html Kurkjian, who said he interviewed that security guard in 2005, 2007 and 2014, said the guard has denied any involvement in the art heist, telling Kurkjian that it was “negligence” on his part. Kurkjian told the audience at Longfellow Books that he tried to reach the security guard on Thursday, but the guard has not returned his phone calls. “Not until today do we have any certain evidence that would indicate he has a lot of explaining to do,” Kurkjian said. https://web.archive.org/web/20150809231716/pressherald.com/2015/08/06/new-video-on-major-art-heist-released-as-author-appears-in-portland The FBI released the grainy, low-resolution surveillance video last Thursday in the hopes that it could generate tips that would help investigators track down the 13 priceless artworks stolen from the museum 25 years ago. FBI officials also said investigators have already identified the two men responsible and determined that both have died since the heist. https://www.patriotledger.com/story/news/crime/2015/08/10/quincy-attorney-says-he-may/33695173007/ The four said they had not been contacted by investigators, though Galas said she called an FBI hot line. https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2015/11/22/tantalizing-theories-but-still-answers-about-gardner-surveillance-video-captured-before-heist/AJGawFvduuK58lcmlQZjIK/story.html https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2015/08/10/attorney-says-former-client-can-id-man-in-gardner-video/ Law enforcement officials are now questioning whether the suspicious actions constituted a dry run for the heist, and it refocuses the spotlight on Richard Abath, the rock musician moonlighting as a security guard who fell under the suspicion of authorities soon after the robbery. https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2015/08/06/newly-discovered-video-shows-guard-let-man-hours-before-notorious-gardner-art-heist/ZTxWNo6c7zfSNQZtcfrDTO/story.html Last week, in response to inquiries from the Globe, Setera said investigators have identified the man, but declined to name him publicly or say whether his admission to the museum is considered suspicious. “Investigators have determined the identity of the individual and the public’s assistance is no longer needed,” Setera said. https://www3.bostonglobe.com/metro/2017/05/23/gardner-museum-doubles-reward-for-stolen-treasures-million/fwmaKMy9oDLLytq78CJCTI/story.html?arc404=true Burke said his client tried to avoid doing business with the man in the video because he was associated with both art thief Myles Connor and William Youngworth, a South Shore man who once claimed he could get the paintings returned. Burke said the man identified by his client is alive. The FBI has said it believes the two men who committed the robbery masquerading as police officers are dead. https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2015/08/10/quincy-attorney-says-client-has-identified-man-gardner-museum-video/F51Idh65S4zw1TReDsMlSO/story.html ***BOSTON (Reuters) - Days after surveillance video from the 1990 Stewart Gardner Museum heist was made public, FBI officials on Tuesday said they are investigating a "handful of tips," including one identifying a mystery man let in to the museum the night before it was robbed of $500 million worth of art. Attorney George Burke of Quincy, Massachusetts, about 10 miles (16 km) outside Boston, said he told federal authorities one of his client identified the grainy video’s mystery man as a businessman who dealt in antiques, the same job held by the client. The two men worked together in the 1990s, Burke said. Scroll to continue The video shows a security guard letting the mystery man through a rear museum entrance on March 17, 1990. Twenty-four hours later it was robbed of works such as Rembrandt's "Storm on the Sea of Galilee," Vermeer's "The Concert" and Manet's "Chez Tortoni” in the biggest art heist in U.S. history. Burke's client said the businessman in the video is alive in Florida, the former prosecutor said. Burke said he gave U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz the man’s Florida address and Ortiz’s office confirmed all information from Burke has been passed to the FBI. Scroll to continue Burke, a former district attorney, said the tipster has not identified himself because he “fears for his life." “I hope this tip is substantial,” Burke told Reuters on Tuesday. “I’m hoping it’s the break they’re looking for.” Thirteen pieces of art were snatched on March 18, 1990, when overnight security guards let two men, dressed as Boston police officers, into the museum. The guards were found duct-taped to chairs in the museum’s basement the next day. Kurkjian https://web.archive.org/web/20150909072109/https://www.pressherald.com/2015/08/06/portland-may-play-role-in-solving-mystery-of-1990-boston-art-heist/ Authorities now have a "certain degree of confidence" that they have identified the two men disguised as police and they are now dead, FBI spokeswoman Kristen Setera said. FBI officials from the Boston office said they released the video last week in the hopes it could lead to the stolen art. "We are re-examining the case, just to see if we can turn up any new leads," FBI spokesperson Kristen Setera said on Tuesday. “We want to find the art." https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKCN0QG1TJ/ What really gave Connor standing in the world of the Gardner heist art recovery effort was his public link to William Youngworth's very public and likely credible effort to negotiat a deal for some of the Gardner art.
There is no answer as to why he included Connor in his deal with the Feds.
Mr. Youngworth said the release of Mr. Connor, a ''surrogate father,'' was ''an unbendable condition.''
He said they had been allowed two meetings in a Rhode Island prison.
Jointly Connor and Youngworth were saying they would trade their help in recovering the
art work for $5 million in museum reward money and leniency from the criminal justice system.
https://gardnerheist.com/houghton_gardner_suspect.html
Obviously Connor incarcerated at the time in Lompoc Federal Peintentury in California could not himself return the art without help. Connor had a need, but what was Youngworth's need?
https://web.archive.org/web/20150527070321/http://www.nytimes.com/1997/09/27/arts/on-the-murky-trail-of-stolen-art.html?pagewanted=2 Perhaps Youngworth wanted to pay back Connor after having sold off many of his belongings, which had been entrusted to him, while Connor served out what would turn out to be an eleven year stretch behind bars. It could also be that Connor had convinced Youngworth that he knew how to handle to question of provenance.As the Boston Globe reported in 2000, "there are a few absolutes that the FBI and Interpol,
follow in negotiating the retun
of stolen artwork
and first and formost among them is that that no one
who who was involved in a theft or who acquired the paintings
knowing they were stolen can benefit financially from their return."
https://gardnerheist.com/Boston_Globe_Sun__Dec_17__2000_315.pdf
It was Youngworth who was negotiating with transparency, and the government, who resisted. "I am not putting on a diver's suit and going on the ocean floor and opening up the safe in the glare of the media, and figure out what's there. That's not the process we're going to follow."
Federal authorities say they had demanded proof from Mr. Youngworth that he could in fact produce the stolen art before they began negotiations with him. Along with the photos, the chips, which an expert hired by The Herald had authenticated as consonant with Rembrandt-era paint, had been meant to serve that purpose.These were unreasonable demands on the part of the government, suggesting that the they were concerned that Youngworth was making a legitimate offer than that he was not.
"Federal authorities refuse to grant immunity for the thefts or the hiding or possible return of the material unless he provided concrete evidence that he has access to the pieces. https://gardnerheist.com/The_Boston_Globe_Thu__Feb_19__1998_.pdf "Youngworth's main efforts to date to provide - truning over to authorities photographs and purported paint chips from two Rembrandts in the heist ended disastorously," In December, the FBI and the Gardner Museum announced that their separate testing of the paint chips determined that they had not come from a Rembrandt. and the photos were also discredited as either photographs of the paintings before they were stolen or photographs of prints. xxx and the photos were also discredited as either photographs of the paintings before they were stolen or photographs of prints.But Youngworth never claimed that the paint chips came from a Rembrandt and decades later were acknowledged to be a match for Vermeer's The Concert, by the Museum's Security Director, Anthony Amore. https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/03/16/metro/mystery-paint-chips-haunts-gardner-museum-30-years-after-heist/ And the Herald's Tom Mashberg, who was the conduit between Youngworth and the Feds, and the Museum questioned whether the description referred to the actual negatives that The Herald had passed along to authorities, or to the prints taken from them, which were made by a computer printer and thus could appear digitally generated. https://www.nytimes.com/1997/12/06/us/new-turn-in-a-twisted-tale-of-stolen-art.html
Mr. Mashberg's article today questioned whether the description referred to the actual negatives that The Herald had passed along to authorities, or to the prints taken from them, which were made by a computer printer and thus could appear digitally generated. Since Youngworth was demanding immunity from prosecution, the role of the U.S. Attorney was unavoidable, however, the demand for physical proof put Youngworth in the very kind of legal jeopardy that he sought to avoid. Working through the media, in his supplying of proof added a legally sound, additional buffer of safety for him in seeking to satisfying the U.S. Attorney's demands.Even before Youngworth came forward with an offer to return the art, seven years after the robbery, the the Feds had clearly established that they would be directly involved in any negotiations for a return.
A year after leaving her job as head of the Gardner Museum, Anne Hawley wrote:
"Working alongside law enforcement, as well as with private investigators to recover the works, I’ve had complex experiences with the FBI...Early in the investigation, I was threatened with the charge of obstruction of justice when pursuing privately a lead that promised to crack open the investigation."https://web.archive.org/web/20161009153332/iop.harvard.edu/get-involved/study-groups/art-politics-changing-hearts-and-minds-led-anne-hawley Youngworth dismissed as a fraud. "On Thursday night, Federal authorities announced that paint chips and photographs provided to them through The Boston Herald and said to come from Rembrandt paintings stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum here were ''not what they purport to be.''
However, Youngworth never claimed the chips were from a Rembrandt, only that they were from one of the stolen Gardner paintings. Twenty three years later, the Gardner Museum's security director acknowledged that “to have paint chips that are consistent not just with a Vermeer, but “The Concert,” is beyond luck. It means that they should be considered as a very strong piece of possible physical evidence." https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/03/16/metro/mystery-paint-chips-haunts-gardner-museum-30-years-after-heist/