Page 69 - All About History - Issue 16-14

10 Daring Heists

How did
the robbers Manet’s frame from outside the Blue Room, the
remove the robbers are done. They begin loading their loot
into their car, using the door to the security office
paintings? to reach outside. The motions sensors on the door
Some of the paintings were show that the robbers use the security door twice,
carefully removed from their placing their $500 million haul into the getaway
frames and glass panels,
delicately removing the canvas vehicle parked in a side street. Before leaving, the
in the process. Others, such robbers tie up a few loose ends.
as a number of the stolen
Rembrandt pieces, were Back in the basement, Abath and his fellow
savagely cut from their frames watchman are still handcuffed to the pipes lining
with a blade, leaving the the wall. Suddenly, the near pitch-black basement is
jagged edges of each piece still
connected to their respective filled with light as the two robbers descend down
frames. The motion sensor the stairs. With nothing but a quick glance to check
data from that night suggests they’re still tied up, the robber’s flick the lights back
the two robbers, took their
time moving between the off and seal the watchman back in.
three rooms they focused on. Back upstairs, the two robbers return to the
security office, find the recording source of the
museum’s internal and external cameras and
The police hunt
remove the VHS tape from that night. Since the
With no DNA evidence and the tapes for the camera museum is barely out of the 1980s, the recording
feeds stolen by the perpetrators, the FBI initially
focused on crime organisations known for art theft equipment is still solely analogue, with only a
and distribution, including the 2011 impeachment of local recording made of the footage. By swiping
reputed mobster Robert V Gentile. After this lead and
others led to dead ends, attention fell on the only the tape, and with few witnesses to identify
tangible lead the FBI had: the guards. A number of them, the robbers steal the only visual proof of
figures involved in the case expressed concern over their identities. Before they leave, they also take
the conduct of Richard Abath, the guard who let the
robbers in. He was interviewed again in 2013 in order the paper recording of the motion sensors, not
to reestablish why he acted in the way he did. As of realising this particular stream of data is backed
today, he’s still cooperating with the authorities.
up on a hard drive. It’s this data that has given the
authorities, and the world, the smallest of insight
into that night’s fateful event. And then, as quietly
as they arrived, the two robbers disappear into the
The Dutch Room still Boston early morning air.
(Second floor, east wing) Long after the robbers and the 13 paintings
disappear into the night, the authorities, the
— The Concert
(Vermeer – oil on canvas) museum staff and the media arrive at one,
Estimated value: $200,000,000 consistent, unanswerable question: why did the
heist only last 81 minutes? Presumably with a big
— A Lady And Gentleman In Black
(Rembrandt – oil on canvas) enough vehicle, and no passing police presence,
Estimated value: $25,000,000 the robbers could have worked long into the night,
but in less than an hour and a half the robbers stop
— The Storm On The Sea Of Galilee
(Rembrandt – oil on canvas) their pillaging. It’s one of many mysteries that still
Estimated value: $27,000,000
surround the notorious heist. Why did the robbers
— Self Portrait mainly focus on paintings by Dutch painters? Why
(Rembrandt – etching) did the motion sensor in the Blue Room fail to
Estimated value: £19,000,000
record the theft of Manet’s Chez Tortoni? Why was
— Landscape With An Obelisk the Tortoni’s frame left in the chair of the head of
(Govaert Flink – oil on oak panel) security? Such questions have led the authorities
Estimated value: $27,000,000
in circles for over two decades, the $5 million
— 6[\aXfX UebamX UXT^Xe"^h reward for information leading to the return of
(Shang Dynasty) the paintings remaining unclaimed and the heist
Estimated value: $8,700,000
among the FBI’s most notorious unsolved cases.

2:09-2:26am 2:27am 2:28-2:39am 2:40-2:4iam 2:45am
The first gap in the data Back in the Dutch Room The second data gap Inner and outer doors Departure
The info the authorities gathered on Over an hour after the criminals The sensors within the museum go There is activity at the security doors Again the inner and outer security
the criminals’ time in the museum is first enter the museum, the alarms quiet again, for an unknown reason. the assailants used to enter the doors are opened and closed,
based almost solely on the various once again ping into life in the Dutch At this point it’s worth noting the premises. The doors they were initially suggesting the robbers have now
sensors throughout the museum. It Room. The sensors show intermittent pace of the criminals. After simply buzzed through are opened and closed moved all the remaining pieces of the
is safe to assume one of the robbers activity, suggesting the two-man team walking into the museum, the two within the space of a few minutes, 13-item haul into the side street. As
enters the Blue Room at some point is moving around the room removing appear to be conducting their suggesting they are moving the first lot the outer door closes at 2:45am, the
to remove Manet’s Chez Tortoni. pieces ready to be moved. operation at a steady pace. of items into their getaway car. two then vanish into thin air.

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