BOSTON HEISTS Ep. 3 | Gardner Museum: “You Can’t Sell A Rembrandt”

Infamous America

Black Barrel Media

True Crime, Documentary, History, Society & Culture

4.5 • 2.8K Ratings

🗓️ 6 August 2025

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In the 1970s and 1980s, Boston and the greater New England region seem plagued by art thieves. Myles Connor becomes the most notorious thief of the era, and he and others notice that the eclectic Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum is a vulnerable target. The FBI likely thwarts an attempted robbery, and, as the 1980s progress, events start to align for the biggest art heist in history. Join Black Barrel+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons: blackbarrel.supportingcast.fm/join Apple users join Black Barrel+ for ad-free episodes, bingeable seasons and bonus episodes. Click the Black Barrel+ banner on Apple to get started with a 3-day free trial. On YouTube, subscribe to INFAMOUS+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons: hit “Join” on the Legends YouTube homepage. For more details, please visit www.blackbarrelmedia.com. Our social media pages are: @blackbarrelmedia on Facebook and Instagram, and @bbarrelmedia on Twitter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Two days before Thanksgiving, 1970, there was only one person in a popular gallery of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, Massachusetts. The gallery,
0:22.6	called the Dutch Room, was on the second floor of the art museum, and its name reflected its
0:27.6	primary theme. The Dutch Room was the home of paintings by famous Dutch masters, like Jan Vermeer,
0:34.4	Rembrandt von Rine, and Anthony von Dyke. But the Gardner Museum was an eclectic space.
0:40.3	Every inch of the gallery was packed with a dizzying array of objects,
0:44.3	so even though the Dutch room was primarily for artwork by Dutch painters,
0:48.3	there were lots of other things in the gallery.
0:51.3	There were German and Italian paintings.
0:55.0	There were antique cabinets, tables, and chairs from Germany, France, Italy, and England.
1:01.0	There was an ancient Chinese drinking vessel called a coup, which was made sometime between
1:06.0	2000 and 1000 BC.
1:09.0	At 3,000 years old, the coup was one of the oldest objects in the museum.
1:14.5	Lastly, there were a couple etchings, which looked like pencil drawings. One of the etchings was a self-portrait of Rembrandt,
1:22.3	which he created around the year 1633. The Rembrandt etching was tiny, about half the size of a classic square post-it note.
1:31.6	It was in a small gold frame, and it hung on the side of a cabinet near the entrance to the gallery.
1:38.3	And on Tuesday, November 24, 1970, two days before Thanksgiving. It was stolen from the Dutch room.
1:49.3	The only visitor in the gallery that morning was a college student named John Calderwood.
1:55.4	Calderwood stood in a corner of the room, probably appearing as though he were studying
1:59.9	the Italian painting on the wall
2:01.6	that was called Portrait of a Woman in Black and White.
2:04.6	Just before 11 a.m., he pulled an unusual object out of one of his pockets.
2:09.6	It was a light bulb, and he had another one in his other pocket.
	...

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