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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
National
Leah Willingham

Inside the world’s largest art heist when over $500M of paintings were stolen from a Boston museum

Art Heist Boston - (Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

For decades, the 1990 theft of 13 artworks from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum — now valued at more than $500 million — has remained unsolved.

It remains the largest art theft in history — far surpassing more recent museum thefts, including a daylight heist at the Louvre that involved far fewer works and was resolved more quickly. In 2013, the FBI said it knew who was responsible for the Boston museum heist but declined to name them, fueling speculation that persists today.

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