March 19, 2008 1:15PM

If You Can’t Make It, Steal It

By Cheryl Casone

I hate a thief. Nothing gets my blood boiling more than someone who takes what they didn’t earn in a legal honest way. Insert Wall Street joke here…..I know right? But, seriously, we had a great segment on the show today about an unsolved art heist in Boston that goes back 18 years.

Boston’s famous Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum was robbed in a heist worth 300 million dollars. Two men posing as policemen came during the night, said they were responding to a 911 call, then tied up the night guard, and made off with their loot. Thomas McShane is a retired FBI agent who is still following, and trying to solve the case. He joined us today.

Here’s the video:

I have to say I was fascinated by his answer to “how do you sell this stuff once you steal it?” He said most of the time it is an insurance company shakedown. And while thieves that go after diamonds for instance have a good knowledge of their target, many art thieves are actually clueless about what they are trying to steal.

Here is a list of the most notorious, and expensive art heists on record:

Iraqi Looted and Stolen Artifacts (Value is priceless – looted from Iraqi Museum, up to 7K-10K remain missing)
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Heist ( value of $300M)
Theft of Carvaggio’s Nativity with San Lorenzo and San Francesco (value of $20M)
Theft of the Davidoff-Morini Stradivarius (value of $3M)
The Van Gogh Museum Robbery (value of $30M)
Theft of Cezanne’s View of Auvers-sur-Oise (value of $3M)
Theft of Da Vinci’s Madonna of the Yarnwinder (Recovered – valued at $65M)
Theft of the Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney Murals, Panels 3-A and 3-B (value at $4M)
Theft from the Museu Chacara do Ceu (value not estimated)
Theft of Van Mieris’s A Cavalier (value over $1M)

CC