CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 3/18/2019

Revisiting the most spectacular unsolved art heist of all time with Kota Ezawa's 'The Crime of Art'

On this day in 1990, a pair of thieves disguised as police officers pulled the greatest art heist in world history, stealing 13 works by artists such as Rembrandt, Vermeer, Manet and Degas from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. In just 81 minutes, the thieves cut numerous paintings, including Rembrandt’s only known seascape and Vermeer's 1664 "The Concert," from their frames, grabbed an ancient Chinese beaker and a bronze eagle finial, and made off with a host of framed works by Degas and Manet. All told, these works are valued at more than $500 million; this remains the largest and most perplexing unsolved art theft in world history. Sophie Calle devoted the book Ghosts to these works (find a copy if you can!), and they are the subject of Kota Ezawa's recent monograh, The Crime of Art. Featured here is Ezawa's 2015 rendition of Vermeer's "The Concert."