The six-minute, 40-second video shows a young white man with a
short jacket being let in by the guard through a rear entrance to
the museum shortly after midnight on March 17, 1990, about 24 hours
before the heist.
The statute of limitations on the crime has long passed, meaning
that if the thieves are found they will not face prosecution. But
the FBI, the Boston office of the Justice Department and the museum
hope to recover the art.
"This latest request for the public's assistance illustrates the
FBI's continued commitment to the Gardner investigation," said
Vincent Lisi, special agent in charge of the Federal Bureau of
Investigation in Boston. "By releasing this video, we hope to
generate meaningful leads and ultimately recover the stolen
artwork."
The newly released grainy video shows a car pulling up to the museum
that matches the description of a vehicle spotted outside shortly
before the heist.
The theft occurred when two men dressed as police officers were
admitted by security guards to the museum in the early morning hours
of March 18, 1990. They allegedly went on to overpower the guards
who were found duct-taped to chairs in the museum's basement the
next morning.
Works of art including Rembrandt's "Storm on the Sea of Galilee,"
Vermeer's "The Concert" and Manet's "Chez Tortoni," were among the
13 pieces stolen from the museum, which features the collection of
the eccentric Boston socialite Gardner.
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Due to a quirk in Gardner's will, the empty frames from which the
paintings were cut still hang on the museum's walls.
The video is one of several avenues investigators are pursuing in
their attempt to recover the art.
They also have filed a gun charge against Robert Gentile, 79, of
Connecticut, who has a criminal record dating to the 1960s and in
whose home FBI investigators found police uniforms and a handwritten
list of the stolen art.
Gentile contends he has been arrested twice in an attempt to extract
information about the heist but says he knows nothing.
(Reporting by Scott Malone; Editing by Bill Trott)
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