Master thieves : the Boston gangsters who pulled off the world's greatest art heist /

Master thieves : the Boston gangsters who pulled off the world's greatest art heist /

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Bibliographic Details
Author / Creator:	Kurkjian, Stephen A., author.
Edition:	First edition.
Imprint:	New York : PublicAffairs, [2015] ©2015
Description:	xxii, 247 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm
Language:	English
Subject:	Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Art thefts -- Massachusetts -- Boston. Theft from museums -- Massachusetts -- Boston. Art thefts. Theft from museums. Massachusetts -- Boston. True crime stories.
Format:	Print Book
URL for this record:	http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/10150895

Hidden Bibliographic Details
ISBN:	9781610394239 1610394232 9781610394246
Notes:	Includes bibliographical references and index.
Summary:	A definitive account of the Boston criminal underworld's role in the infamous $500 million Gardner Museum art theft traces the contributions of master thief Louis Royce and gangster Ralph Rossetti while examining the FBI's controversial announcement that they had identified the responsible parties. "In a secret meeting in 1981, a master thief named Louis Royce gave career gangster Ralph Rossetti the tip of a lifetime. As a kid, Royce had visited the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and made a habit of sneaking in at night to find a good place to sleep. He knew the Museum's security was lax, and he gave this information to a boss of the Boston criminal underworld. It took years before the Museum was hit. But when it finally happened, it quickly became one of the most infamous art heists in history: 13 works of art valued at up to $500 million--including Rembrandt's "The Storm on the Sea of Galilee." The identity of the thieves were a mystery, the paintings were never found. What happened in those intervening years? Which Boston crew landed the big score? And why, more than 20 years later, did the FBI issue a press conference stating that they knew who had pulled off the heist and what had happened to the artwork, but provided no identities and scant details? These mysteries are the story of Kurkjian's revealing book. The best and longest-tenured reporter on this case, and one of the most decorated investigative reporters in America, Kurkjian will reveal the identities of this who plotted the heist, the motive for the crime, and the details that the FBI refused to reveal. He will take the reader deep into the Boston mob, and paint the most complete and compelling picture of this story ever told"--

Description
Summary:	The definitive story of the greatest art theft in history. <br> <br> In a secret meeting in 1981, a low-level Boston thief gave career gangster Ralph Rossetti the tip of a lifetime: the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum was a big score waiting to happen. Though its collections included priceless artworks by Rembrandt, Vermeer, Degas, and others, its security was cheap, mismanaged, and out of date. And now, it seemed, the whole Boston criminal underworld knew it.<br> <br> Nearly a decade passed before the Museum museum was finally hit. But when it finally happened, the theft quickly became one of the most infamous art heists in history: thirteen works of art valued at up to 500 million, by some of the most famous artists in the world, were taken. The Boston FBI took control of the investigation, but twenty-five years later the case is still unsolved and the artwork is still missing.<br> <br> Stephen Kurkjian, one of the top investigative reporters in the country, has been working this case for over nearly twenty years. In Master Thieves , he sheds new light on some of the Gardner's most abiding mysteries. Why would someone steal these paintings, only to leave them hidden for twenty-five years? And why, if one of the top crime bosses in the city knew about this score in 1981, did the theft happen in 1990? What happened in those intervening years? And what might all this have to do with Boston's notorious gang wars of the 1980s?<br> <br> Kurkjian's reporting is already responsible for some of the biggest breaks in this story, including a meticulous reconstruction of what happened at the Museum museum that fateful night. Now Master Thieves will reveal the identities of those he believes plotted the heist, the motive for the crime, and the details that the FBI has refused to discuss. Taking you on a journey deep into the gangs of Boston, Kurkjian emerges with the most complete and compelling version of this story ever told.<br>
Physical Description:	xxii, 247 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm
Bibliography:	Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN:	9781610394239 1610394232 9781610394246