EDUCATORS’ PERSPECTIVE
Risk, Return and Rembrandt: The Heist
By Brian Grinder and Dan Cooper
The sound of a knife slashing through the 357-year-old canvas disturbed the eerie silence of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. It was early morning, the day after St. Patrick’ s Day 1990. Perhaps the painting itself cried out,“ Do you not care that we are perishing?” as the knife crudely cut it from its stretcher boards. Paint flakes drifted to the floor as the knife finished its dastardly deed. Rembrandt Van Riijn’ s masterpiece then disappeared into the night, never to be seen again.
Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee was one of Rembrandt’ s earlier works. It was painted in 1633 before Rembrandt moved from his hometown of Leiden to Amsterdam. It was the only known seascape by the Dutch master.
Although Christ in the Storm dominated the Dutch Room of the Gardner Museum, it was not the most expensive piece of artwork stolen that night. The Concert, a rare piece by Johannes Vermeer, was also taken. In Van Gogh Has A Broken Heart, author Russ Ramsey estimates that The Concert was worth about $ 200 million, whereas Christ in the Storm was worth about $ 100 million. All told, over half a billion dollars’ worth of art was stolen from the museum. At the time, it was the largest art heist in history.
The two thieves gained entrance by posing as police officers and using the museum’ s intercom system to contact a security guard. They asked him to let them in to investigate a report of a disturbance in the museum’ s courtyard. Upon gaining entry, the thieves quickly bound the two security guards on duty with duct tape and marched them down to the basement, where they were handcuffed and warned to keep quiet.
Over the next 80 minutes, the thieves had free access to a museum filled with priceless masterpieces. Their take included one Vermeer, three Rembrandts, several Degas and various other pieces of art. In spite of a still standing $ 10 million reward for information leading to the recovery of the stolen
On that day, when evening had come, he said to them,“ Let us go across to the other side.” And leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. And other boats were with him. And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling. But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him,“ Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”
— Mark 4:35 – 38 ESV
Rembrandt’ s 1633 painting, Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee, was stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in 1990 and has yet to be recovered.
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