ON 18 March 1990, two men posing as police officers knocked on the side door of Boston’s Gardner Museum.
The thieves tied the guards on duty to pipes in the basement and roamed through the galleries, handpicking their wares.
They left with 13 paintings with a combined total worth of $500,000. The stolen works include Vermeer’s The Concert and Rembrandt’s The Storm on the Sea of Galilee.
Despite renewed investigations and a $5 million reward, none of the works have been recovered.
Now, 25 years on, a new clue has emerged.
On Thursday, officials in the city released new surveillance video showing an unauthorised visitor entering the museum 24 hours before the robbery.
Authorities hope the never-before seen video spark some leads in the still-unsolved heist.
It shows a guard appearing to speak into an intercom, then grant access to a man. The man is seen getting out of a car matching the general description of one reported to be parked outside the museum minutes before the theft. He uses the same rear entrance as the thieves.
Back in 2013, the FBI offered the $5 million reward for the return of the paintings. At the time, agents indicated that they had made significant progress in the hunt for the art. They also said they knew the identity of the thieves - members of a criminal organisation based on the east coast of America.
It is understood that the artworks were moved to Connecticut and Philadelphia over the past 25 years and that “someone has seen the art hanging on a wall, placed above a mantel[piece], or stored in an attic.”
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