Main content

18/03/2010

John Wilson reports on the largest unsolved art theft ever.

Twenty years ago to the day, two thieves entered the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, USA, and seized art including a Vermeer, three Rembrandts and a Manet, with a total current value of about £350 million. John Wilson reports from the Museum on this audacious robbery, which remains the single greatest property theft ever. Empty frames on the gallery walls remain a sad and constant reminder of the crime.

John talks to investigators from the Museum and the FBI still on the trail of the missing art, and hears the many theories about the possible perpetrators. Novelist Tracy Chevalier, who saw the Vermeer in the Museum before it was stolen, reflects on the part this painting played in her novel Girl With A Pearl Earring, and crime writer David Hosp discusses his fictional account of the crime and its aftermath in his new novel Among Thieves.

And despite the two decades since these art works disappeared from public view, John discovers that a happy ending is not out of the question.

Available now

30 minutes

Last on

Sat 25 Jan 2014 19:15

Credits

Role Contributor
Presenter John Wilson
Interviewed Guest Tracy Chevalier
Interviewed Guest David Hosp

Broadcasts

  • Thu 18 Mar 2010 19:15
  • Sat 25 Jan 2014 19:15

±«Óãtv Arts Digital

The best of British culture live and on demand.

Inspire

Inspire

A season discovering where artists find inspiration and helping listeners get creative.

Podcast