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Robert Gentile admitted in April to illegally selling a loaded
firearm to a convicted killer, the result of what his lawyer
calls a Federal Bureau of Investigation sting operation aimed at
pressuring him into providing details on paintings stolen from
Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in March 1990.
Gentile, 81, has repeatedly denied knowing the whereabouts of
any of the art, valued at an estimated $500 million, taken in
one of the longest unsolved high-profile crimes in Boston, and
did not address the matter during the hearing.
But during a polygraph test performed as part of the Gardner
investigation, Gentile had an intense reaction when he was shown
images of the missing paintings, while he remained calm when
shown unrelated artwork, according to a law enforcement source
briefed on the test.
Gentile could be sentenced to almost six years in prison when he
appears in U.S. District Court in Hartford, Connecticut on
Tuesday. It is unclear how long a sentence prosecutors are
actually seeking as court papers spelling out the request were
filed under seal.
The Gardner heist was carried out by two men dressed in police
uniforms who apparently overpowered a night security guard who
had buzzed them in.
None of the 13 stolen artworks, which include Rembrandt's "Storm
on the Sea of Galilee," and Vermeer's "The Concert," has been
recovered.
At a 2015 hearing, prosecutors said Gentile was secretly
recorded telling an undercover FBI agent that he had access to
at least two of the paintings and could sell them for $500,000
each.
A 2012 search by the FBI of Gentile's home turned up a
handwritten list of the stolen art, its estimated value and
police uniforms, according to court documents.
(Reporting by Scott Malone in Boston; Editing by Bernadette
Baum)
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