Boston FBI agent: Recent Italian art heist part of a growing problem for museums

BOSTON — Last week, it took a group of thieves just three minutes to steal three paintings by Renoir, Cezanne, and Matisse from a small Italian museum.

The looted paintings are worth an estimated ten million dollars.

Retired Boston FBI Agent Geoffrey Kelly spent much of his law enforcement career investigating art theft, including the infamous unsolved Gardner Museum Heist in Boston.

“Small museums getting robbed is a fairly common occurrence. Unfortunately, this is another example of it,” Kelly said.

Kelly believes the Italian heist was a simple smash-and-grab.

“Do you think it’s unlikely there’s some mastermind art collector out there who had a shopping list and sent these guys into that museum?” Boston 25’s Bob Ward asked.

“I’m quite confident it was not, what we call a Dr. No scenario,” Kelly said.

But if the thieves were looking for a quick score, Kelly tells me they are in for a brutal reality check.

“If you are counting on (collecting) ten percent which we say is a kind of the Black Market value, a million dollars for an evening’s work isn’t bad. But the reality is you’re not going to get a million dollars for it because there is no market. And that’s kind of the lament of the new art thief,” Kelly said.

Kelly believes that’s what happened to the Gardner Museum’s stolen artwork, and why it hasn’t been recovered.

Geoffrey Kelly’s new book, “Thirteen Perfect Fugitives,” details the frustrating investigation.

“They unwittingly committed the heist of the century, and now they are stuck with these things. And over time (the Gardner art) became more of a liability than any possible benefit,” Kelly told me.

The Italian heist comes only five months after a major heist at the Louvre in Paris, France.

Kelly believes the back-to-back heists should put all museums on notice.

“You can expect to see more of this,” Kelly said. “Whether it’s successful or not there are guys thinking, ‘Hey that’s a pretty good idea’ even though it’s a terrible idea.”

In Boston, thirty-six years after the Gardner Heist, the Museum is offering a $10 Million Reward.

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