The Phoenix Network:
 
 
About  |  Advertise
Adult  |  Moonsigns  |  Band Guide  |  Blogs  |  In Pictures
 
Books  |  Comedy  |  Dance  |  Museum And Gallery  |  Theater
Nominate-best-2010

Interview: Ulrich Boser

Going after the Gardner thieves
By JEFFREY GANTZ  |  March 24, 2009

090320_boser-main

As we reach the 19th anniversary of the theft of 13 priceless art objects — among them Vermeer's The Concert, Rembrandt's The Storm on the Sea of Galilee and A Lady and Gentleman in Black, and Manet's Chez Tortoni — from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, there's been a renewed effort to identify the thieves and retrieve the Gardner treasures. Ulrich Boser's new book, The Gardner Heist: The True Story of the World's Largest Unsolved Art Theft, proposes an identification of the two men who actually entered the museum. He's been in town reading last month and this; I caught up with him at the Parker House.

Let's go back to the night of the Gardner Museum theft, March 18, 1990. The thieves are in their car, outside the museum, and "Jerry Stratberg" — your name for the high-school senior who saw them — says he got a good look. Was the light on in the car?
I don't recall the answer to that very specific question. What I do recall is that the car was sitting fairly close to the street lamp. So there's the entrance to Palace Road, the Palace Road door. Slightly to the left there's a street lamp.

What surprised me about this account is that you have kids who are underage and have been drinking, and yet Jerry and his friend Nancy get close enough to a car with what appear to be police officers for Jerry to report that the man in the driver's seat had "almost Asian" eyes.
I think my understanding from my reporting is that the disconnect was what really surprised them. An unmarked Crown Vic would be one thing you might see police officers in, but in sort of an older-model hatchback — that was what was of note to them.

Wouldn't you think that the thieves would avoid parking near a light?
My understanding is that they were just beyond the street lamp. To me, the Gardner heist is a mystery and there are mysteries within the mystery. Why did they steal the finial? Why did they steal the ku?

There are lot of things about the Gardner theft, little things, perhaps unimportant things, that don't add up.
I try to make this clear in the book: at least in my other reporting, you have facts that are generally well accepted. And in this case it's been a long time and you have a lot of slippery characters. Those two things mix together to create a difficult topic for investigators to approach.

What you wish is that you could call in Columbo.
We're not able to call in Columbo.

How good can we expect Jerry's memory to be 19 years later?
I think that the biggest part of that is not the showing of the photographs to him. It was his description of the police officers I think — actually the thieves — that is really key here, because he gave a very specific description. It wasn't even like, "a well-built guy"; he said the man had Asian eyes. And he got more specific than that: he said one Caucasian and one Asian eye. That to me is very detailed, that's something he gave immediately afterward, so I feel that's really far more in depth than the IDing of the photographs, which is . . . you know, I'm not a police investigator. I'm sure there are methods to doing that appropriately. There was an article in Slate in the past couple of days that said eyewitness-identifying people is a slippery thing. But the specific description that he gave seemed to indicate some confidence.

1  |  2  |  3  |  4  |  5  |  6  |  7  |   next >
Related: Solved?, Musical acrobats, Grand seductions, More more >
  Topics: Books , Crime, John Kerry, Boston Police Department,  More more >
  • Share:
  • Share this entry with Facebook
  • Share this entry with Digg
  • Share this entry with Delicious
  • RSS feed
  • Email this article to a friend
  • Print this article
HTML Prohibited
Add Comment

ARTICLES BY JEFFREY GANTZ
Share this entry with Delicious
  •   PLAY BY PLAY: FEBRUARY 5, 2010  |  February 03, 2010
    Boston's weekly theater listings
  •   PLAY BY PLAY: JANUARY 29, 2010  |  January 27, 2010
    Boston's weekly theater schedule
  •   PLAY BY PLAY: JANUARY 22, 2010  |  January 20, 2010
    Boston's weekly theatre schedule
  •   REVIEW: EMANUEL AX AT JORDAN HALL  |  January 13, 2010
    I don't want to imply that everybody who's anybody was at Jordan Hall Friday night to hear pianist Emanuel Ax's Celebrity Series recital — but that was Yo-Yo Ma sitting two rows in front of me.
  •   MISS PERFECT  |  January 12, 2010
    I know what you're thinking: " Another Emma ? Didn't we just have a bushel of Jane Austen adaptations for TV?" Well, WGBH did give us four new Austens, but that was all the way back in 2008, a Jane-ite eternity.

 See all articles by: JEFFREY GANTZ

MOST POPULAR
RSS Feed of for the most popular articles
 Most Viewed   Most Emailed 



  |  Sign In  |  Register
 
thePhoenix.com:
Phoenix Media/Communications Group:
TODAY'S FEATURED ADVERTISERS
Copyright © 2010 The Phoenix Media/Communications Group