Title: The Gardner Heist, The True Story of the World's Largest Unsolved Art Theft [NF 2010 #6!]Author: Ulrich Boser
Read: Boston, NYC
Format: Trade paperback
Recently on a very good night in Cambridge, I went to both Mr. & Mrs. Bartley's Burger Cottage and the Harvard Book Store. Feeling generally nostalgic for my youth's home, I decided to pick up this book about the notorious Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum theft of 1990.
Other than a general knowledge of its occurrence, I knew very little about this crime. Now I know a lot. Including:
- there's a bunch of scary gangsters in Boston
- art theft is cool-sounding and all, but it's really bad
- investigators get obsessed with this case, but all the leads are now cold
- the museum has not replaced the missing canvases with any other works
- a man (Harold Smith) with NO NOSE helped the author learn more about the case
- my hometown of Brockton is mentioned as a place the paintings might be
- nobody KNOWS who did it, but a lot of people think that that Whitey Bulger guy might have something to do with it
- Whitey Bulger and Billy Bulger are brothers
- there were NO CLUES at the scene of the crime
The writing in the book is a little wack. Ulrich Boser really loves the sentence composition that begins with a descriptive clause and leads into the statement. Like this:
"A tall man with dark hair and glasses, John So-and-So took his work very seriously."
When 60% of your sentences follow this construction, it gets silly fast. And after about 100 pages, it starts to make you roll your eyes. No matter, though. The topic was interesting enough for me to fight through the mediocre writing and I'm glad to know more about this fascinating event. Also, as much as I like to pretend it is all progressive state legislature and patrician ideals, Massachusetts has a very real, very seedy criminal underbelly. Though one of the most infamous crimes - debatable, I know - would be an art heist.
Also, it has a section of glossy color pictures in the middle. That's always fun.
Fascinating and suspenseful. Goofy writing.
4 out of 5 stars
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