The FBI continues to stir the pot on the Isabelle Stewart Gardner Museum heist from nearly a quarter century ago. Law enforcement has been occasionally reminding us that they’re still looking for these stolen works and have real leads:
In his first TV interview, FBI Special Agent Geoff Kelly, the Bureau’s leading investigator on the Gardner Case, tells FOX 25’s Bob Ward the trail for the missing Gardner artwork has not grown cold.
Kelly said the Bureau has confirmed sightings, from sources the Bureau deems credible, of the Gardner artwork in the years after it was stolen. He also identified three persons of interest in the Gardner case, all with ties to organized crime: Carmello Merlino, Robert Guarente, and Robert Gentile.
Kelly said in the late 1990’s, two FBI informants told the Bureau that Merlino was preparing to return Rembrandt’s Storm on the Sea of Galilee, in an effort to collect the reward. However, Merlino and his crew were soon arrested in an aborted armored car heist and the painting was never returned.
Kelly believes Guarente somehow passed control of the stolen Gardner artwork to Gentile, a Manchester, Conn. man. Kelly believes Gentile has ties to organized crime in Philadelphia, PA and that Gentile helped bring some or all of the stolen Gardner artwork to Philadelphia where it was last seen in 2000, offered for sale.
FBI has confirmed sightings of Gardner artwork after heist (MyFoxBoston)
