Shortly after midnight on March 18, 1990, two men broke into the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston and committed the largest art heist in history. They stole a dozen masterpieces, including one Vermeer, three Rembrandts, and five Degas. But after thousands of leads-and a $5 million reward-none of the paintings have been recovered. Worth as much as $500 million, the missing masterpieces have become one of the nation's most extraordinary unsolved mysteries. After the death of famed art detective Harold Smith, reporter Ulrich Boser decided to take up the case. Exploring Smith's unfinished leads, Boser travels deep into the art underworld and comes across a remarkable cast of characters, including a brilliant rock 'n' roll thief, a gangster who professes his innocence in rhyming verse, and the enigmatic late Boston heiress Isabella Stewart Gardner herself. Boser becomes increasingly obsessed with the case and eventually uncovers startling new evidence about the identities of the thieves. A tale of art and greed, of obsession and loss, The Gardner Heist is as compelling as the stolen masterpieces themselves. "Boser offers a tantalizing whodunit as he embarks on an exhaustive search for the stolen masterpieces." "Boser's book on it has the feel of a speedy ride down a mountain road spiked with hairpin turns." "The book is a thrill." "Expos[es] the real world of art theft: It isn't about glamour and culture-it's about greed, violence, and irreparable, maddening loss." "A captivating portrait of the world's biggest unsolved art theft." "Boser cracks the cold case of the art world's greatest unsolved mystery." "Boser's rousing account of his years spent collecting clues large and small is entertaining enough to make readers almost forget that…the paintings have still not been found."
