Master Thieves: The Boston Gangsters Who Pulled Off the World's Greatest Art Heist

by Stephen Kurkjian Narrated by Mike Chamberlain

Overview

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: thirteen works of art valued at up to $500 million-including Rembrandt's "The Storm on the Sea of Galilee." The identity of the thieves was a mystery, and the paintings were never found.




What happened in those intervening years? Which Boston crew landed the big score? And why, more than twenty 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 Stephen Kurkjian's revealing book. He will take the listener deep into the Boston mob and paint the most complete and compelling picture of this story ever told.

Editorial Reviews

The New York Times Book Review - Jonathon Keats

More than just a summation of all that's publicly known about the case—from the thieves' false mustaches to the F.B.I.'s sting operations—Kurkjian's book is an impressive attempt to solve the crime by reconsidering the evidence…What makes Kurkjian's book so gripping is…an accomplished investigator's sense of open-minded humility.

From the Publisher

More than just a summation of all that's publicly known about the case-from the thieves' false mustaches to the F.B.I.'s sting operation—Kurkjian's book is an impressive attempt to solve the crime by reconsidering the evidence...gripping."—New York Times Book Review

a cast of characters that would make Martin Scorsese swoon in admiration. There are so many crime-world figures with their fingers in this story that the book is like a 'GoodFellas'/'The Departed' double feature...Kurkjian constructs a thrilling narrative... A great mystery story well told.—Boston Globe

If you want to go looking for the lost Gardner horde (and collect the $5-million reward the gallery offers for its return), there's no better place to start than the pages of Master Thieves. The museum (and the FBI) could use the help.—Winnipeg Free Press

From the Publisher - AUDIO COMMENTARY

"[E]ngrossing real-life crime story." —Kirkus

Library Journal - Audio

06/15/2015
On March 18, 1990, two thieves posing as Boston police officers entered the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. After overpowering and securing the guards, they stole 13 works of art valued at $500 million, including two Rembrandts. In his first book, Boston Globe reporter Kurkjian presents a detailed account of the theft and subsequent investigation. Despite warnings from law enforcement prior to the robbery, the museum made no substantial improvements to security owing to a lack of funding and a dislike of outside interference by its Board of Governors. The FBI, which led the probe, failed to cooperate with local police agencies and, often, with itself. Concurrently, the Boston underworld was engaged in turf wars, with each side using the theft for its own ends. A quarter of a century later, the identity of the thieves and location of the artworks remain a mystery. Reader Mike Chamberlain does an excellent job presenting the story. VERDICT This audiobook is recommended to art lovers and all fans to true-life crime stories. ["A compelling read of an intriguing mystery": LJ 2/15/15 review of the PublicAffairs hc.]—Stephen L. Hupp, West Virginia Univ. Parkersburg Lib.

Library Journal

02/15/2015
Author Kurkjian uses his talents as an investigative journalist (Boston Globe) to piece together the puzzle and offer his guess as to what happened in the greatest art heist in the history of the United States. In 1990, two men robbed the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum of 13 pieces of art, including a Rembrandt. To this day, the pieces have yet to be found and those responsible are unknown. Kurkjian has many threads to unravel in this mystery. Boston's mafia families are connected to the robbery, from low-level hoods to famed boss James "Whitey" Bulger. The paintings stolen were going to be a big pay day, or maybe they were taken as leverage to negotiate a release from prison. Kurkjian covers the many theories and at times gets repetitive and a little too detailed; however, the reader will know by the close of the book all of the dead ends that exist in the case. VERDICT This is a compelling read of an intriguing mystery. With mafia intrigue and a cast of characters, Kurkjian reveals who he believes was really involved and maybe where the paintings might still rest. Recommended for those who like reading about true crime, art history, and heists.—Ryan Claringbole, Coll. Lib. at the Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison

APRIL 2015 - AudioFile

The 13 artworks by Rembrandt, Vermeer, and other masters stolen in 1990 are still missing from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. The author writes about 20 years of looking into this "uniquely Boston" case. Mike Chamberlain narrates Kurkjian's keen descriptions and observations with a comfortable feel. Rather than the excitement of an investigation, his narration gives listeners a feeling of the day-to-day aspects of being inside the case. Listeners will start to feel they know everyone—from the security guards who were on duty to the detectives and the Mob figures who've joined the investigation. "Boston's last best secret" doesn't get answered, but Chamberlain brings listeners in on the workings of the city. J.A.S. © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine

Kirkus Reviews

2015-01-04
A reporter investigates a notorious art heist.In 1990, two thieves made their way into Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and fled with 13 artworks, worth $500 million. Despite the FBI's ongoing investigation, the thieves were never caught, and the art remains missing. Pulitzer Prize-winning Boston Globe investigative reporter Kurkjian worked on the story when it first broke, and in his fast-paced, though sometimes repetitious, debut book, he recounts the heist, the official investigation and his own probing into the case. Security was lax at the museum, making it possible for two men, dressed in police uniforms, to gain entry, secure the guards with duct tape and invade the galleries. Shattering protective glass, they cut paintings from their frames and left without detection. The FBI took control immediately, refusing to involve the Massachusetts State Police or the Boston police, which the author sees as a crucial mistake. Mob involvement was suspected from the start, and local authorities, as one Boston policeman put it, "knew every wise guy in the city and had some reliable informants." As the case grew colder, the handful of FBI men assigned to it was reduced; three months after the heist, only one agent supervised. The author reveals the "Hollywood-style deal-making" used by the FBI to try to get mobsters to talk, but their efforts repeatedly failed. In 2013, after the Boston Marathon bombing, the head of the FBI's Boston office tried to get the public's help in identifying artwork they may have seen or tips on the perpetrators, but nothing emerged. Based on interviews with scores of mob bosses, gang members, their wives, girlfriends, family members and lawyers, as well as with policemen and other reporters, Kurkjian believes he knows who did it. He has shared his findings with the FBI, and they come as the climax to this engrossing real-life crime story.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170893164
Publisher:	Tantor Audio
Publication date:	03/17/2015
Edition description:	Unabridged

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