The Gardner Heist

The True Story of the World's Largest Unsolved Art Theft

By: Ulrich Boser

Narrated by: Stephen Graybill

Length: 8 hrs and 27 mins

Publisher's summary

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.

A Bustle Pick for Mystery Lovers Who Don't Want to Read about Murder.

©2018 Ulrich Boser (P)2018 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

DON'T STEAL THE ARTWORK!

So, despite being a few years since this book was published, the heist is STILL unsolved.

Nonetheless, it's an interesting book, if somewhat alarming in letting the reader know how easy it is to steal art (not to mention profitable :/). PLEASE don't steal artwork!

For me, learning about Isabella Stewart Gardner was the most rewarding part of the book - not being local to Boston, I've been ignorant of both this interesting woman and her very special art museum.

Loved it!

I finished this in 2 days! The story combined with the performance leaves the impression more of a film than a book recounting an art heist and its ramifications. I went into this knowing the art still hadn't been recovered and it didn't affect my interest one bit. I found myself secretly hoping Ulrich Boser would find the works (irrationally) and was sorry to come to the end of his story. His personal insights and self-reflections really serve to raise the stakes for the reader. Boser pays homage to investigator Harold Smith by consistently weaving in dialogue he had with the now deceased detective while he was alive and still pursuing the case, resulting in a portrait of Smith whose presence is felt throughout the book.

The unexpected twists and turns near the conclusion were fascinating- truth is most certainly stranger than fiction!

Very interesting and informative

I was surprised at how interesting what started out as a dry subject ended up being. Well read.

Fascinating History

For me, at least, this read like a cable-TV true crime series. A little bit of what you tuned in for interspersed with long bits of overly-detailed narrative akin to the madness behind click-bait Web sites that make you scroll past advertisements to read the meat of the piece.

The reader’s enunciation was good, but a handful of words were not in agreement with dictionary-guidance pronunciation. His tone was even and unvarying which wasn’t much better than droning. Not good for people with ADD.

Clearly not my preference in writing or narration, but your taste may vary. But here and there I did learn some interesting things about the heist. It made me want to revisit the museum.

Riveting an exciting story

I really enjoyed listening to this book. The story took me on a real adventure . Like a who done it.

I can understand the writer’s obsession with the lost art

I’ve been hooked on the mystery for 30 years. Mr Boser has a very understanding wife.

Collection of past investigations

Those looking for conclusions - stay away. At the time of printing, this is still an unsolved mystery.

Rather this is a collection of past investigations and dead-ends with some history (both of the collection and art thefts in general) and gossip thrown in. It was interesting in a way, but definitely need to have appropriate expectations going in. Is it criminal genius? Is it botched police work or grand cover-up conspiracy? That's for you to decide. But it will still be a guess since there isn't much evidence to present.

If you are mare into the journey than the destination then this book is for you.

A Fascinating Story Made a Little Dull

What started out well became duller with each chapter. It is a mystery that stalled out as more and more speculation took over the story, all of which led nowhere. The author seemed a bit naive at times like when he traveled to Ireland expecting to just find Whitey Bulger walking on the street so he could quiz (the killer of 19 men) if he had anything to do with the Gardner heist.

I didn’t mind the narrator’s voice, but as with most audio books which deal with great artworks, artists and locales, the pronunciation wasn’t always the best.

Snarf

Snarfing snarf snarfs snarfology the study of snarfed snarf snarfu shamu shampoo deodorant popsicles cover

fascinating story

A very compelling story to listen to. although I already knew the artwork had not been recovered, I was waiting until the end hoping that I was wrong.
The reader did a nice job as well.