Late at night on March 18, 1990, two thieves dressed as police officers — one of them bold enough to sport a false mustache made of wax — talked their way past security guards at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. After handcuffing the hapless guards, the pair made off with a half-billion-dollars’ worth of paintings by Rembrandt, Degas, Vermeer, Manet, and other artists. The still-unsolved heist is among the largest thefts of property in world history.
The FBI refers to art theft and related crimes as a “looming criminal enterprise” that costs museums, galleries, and private collectors billions of dollars each year. The Bureau maintains a 16-member art crime team that in the past 15 years has successfully recovered more than 14,850 stolen items with a collective value that exceeds $165 million. Although a crack squad of law enforcement agents exists to chase down and recover paintings after they’ve been snatched, it’s better to prevent those priceless works from getting stolen in the first place. That’s the job of New York-based security company Art Guard.