In the consult, we discuss cases involving violence, sexual violence, abduction, and murder.

Sometimes the cases we discuss involve children.

Listener discretion is advised. Welcome to the consult. I'm Julia Cowley, retired FBI agent and profiler, and the case we are going to be talking about today isn't a murder,

but it remains too many one of the most intriguing mysteries in FBI history. But before we get

started, if you'd like to support our show, you can join our Patreon at patreon.com slash the

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which was created by fans for fans of the consult where listeners can discuss our episodes

and other true crime topics. So our case today began on March 18th, 1990. Two men dressed as Boston police officers

rang the night buzzer at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Within minutes, they had full

control of the building. They tied up to security guards in the basement and for the next 81 minutes

moved through the galleries unchallenged, cutting masterpieces from their frames and walking

out with what would become the largest art theft in history. Somewhere between 500 million to over

a billion dollars worth of art vanished into the night. No alarms, no arrests,

no recoveries. And for decades, almost nothing publicly changed except the quiet, relentless work

happening behind the scenes. My guest today is Jeffrey Kelly, also known as Jeff, a retired FBI agent who spent more than 20

years investigating this case as the lead investigating agent. He was one of the original

members of the FBI's art crime team and led the Gardner investigation longer than almost any agent has ever held a single case.

I think that's true.

I do. I think that is true. It's a dubious distinction, but I think it's accurate, Julia.

It could be good and bad. During that time, Jeff traveled the world, chasing leads, dining with

museum directors and collectors, and just as often with thieves, mobsters, and killers.

And Jeff has also written a book, which is what we're going to talk about today, about the

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