Shortly after midnight on March 18, 1990, two men broke into the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston and committed the largest art heist in history. They stole a dozen masterpieces, including one Vermeer, three Rembrandts, and five Degas. But after thousands of leads—and a $5 million reward—none of the paintings have been recovered. Worth as much as $500 million, the missing masterpieces have become one of the nation’s most extraordinary unsolved mysteries.
After the death of famed art detective Harold Smith, reporter Ulrich Boser decided to take up the case. Exploring Smith’s unfinished leads, Boser travels deep into the art underworld and comes across a remarkable cast of characters, including a brilliant rock ‘n’ roll thief, a gangster who professes his innocence in rhyming verse, and the enigmatic late Boston heiress Isabella Stewart Gardner herself. Boser becomes increasingly obsessed with the case and eventually uncovers startling new evidence about the identities of the thieves. A tale of art and greed, of obsession and loss, The Gardner Heist is as compelling as the stolen masterpieces themselves.
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“Boser’s rousing account of his years spent collecting clues large and small is entertaining enough to make readers almost forget that…the paintings have still not been found.”
— Publishers Weekly
“Boser offers a tantalizing whodunit as he embarks on an exhaustive search for the stolen masterpieces.”
— Boston Globe“Boser’s book on it has the feel of a speedy ride down a mountain road spiked with hairpin turns.”
— Christian Science Monitor“The book is a thrill.”
— The Guardian (London)“Expos[es] the real world of art theft: It isn’t about glamour and culture—it’s about greed, violence, and irreparable, maddening loss.”
— USA Today“A captivating portrait of the world’s biggest unsolved art theft.”
— Wall Street Journal“Boser cracks the cold case of the art world’s greatest unsolved mystery.”
— Vanity FairBe the first to write a review about this audiobook!
Ulrich Boser is a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress (CAP), where he writes about social issues. Prior to joining CAP, he was a contributing editor for US News & World Report and research director at Education Week. His work has appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal. He is the author of The Leap and The Gardner Heist, a Boston Globe bestseller.
Stephen Graybill is an actor, producer, and award-winning voice-over artist. He was seen on television in The Girls Guide to Depravity, Law & Order: SVU, Law & Order, and HBO’s The Wire. He has also acted on stage and done voice-overs for commercials, winning both a Gold Clio Award and a Silver Effie Award. He has also worked on over fifty audiobooks, including Jesus Swagger by Jarrid Wilson.