For more than 30 years, 13 pieces of artwork from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum have been missing that collectively are worth around $500 million. The art was stolen from the in Boston mansion-turned-gallery during one of the biggest heists in history.
The two thieves dressed as police officers in order to earn the trust of employees at the museum, and they subsequently tied them up and began collecting the pieces.
The case remains unsolved, but there’s one person who has long been linked to the event: Myles Connor Jr.
The Massachusetts resident had been arrested several times for stealing art (among other charges) prior to the infamous 1990 heist. Though he admitted to wanting to rob the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, he has maintained his innocence over the years.
The incident is covered at length in the four-part Netflix docu-series, This Is a Robbery: The World’s Biggest Art Heist. Myles Connor Jr. contributed to the limited series to share his side of the story, and to implicate someone else in the crime. Find out where he is now, and why he’s been associated with the event for years.
Myles Connor Jr. was in prison when the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum robbery occurred.
The Milton, Mass. native had a long history of getting arrested when the 1990 theft occurred. In addition to his run-ins with law enforcement, Myles was a musician, and he was known for his incredibly high IQ.
“Depends on who you ask but, in general, I’m known as an art thief. And, some people consider me the biggest art thief in this country because I’ve robbed a number of museums,” he shared on the series. “But, then again, I was a rock and roll guy.”
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Interestingly, Myles actually came from a family of police officers.
Beginning in the ’60s, he had been involved in shoot-outs, art robberies in Maine, and drug dealing.
In 1975, he stole a Rembrandt painting from the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston in order to lighten a prison sentence. It was later returned.
He was also convicted for a 1981 double-homicide in Quincy, Mass., but the ruling was overturned just four years later.
Source: Netflix
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He was later associated with the 1988 Bangs Hallet House art theft in Yarmouth, which he denied to the police. Because the robbery took place just a few years before the Isabella Stewart Gardner event, many thought that the crimes could be connected.
Authorities thought that Myles could be involved in the 1990 heist because of his track record with stealing art. Based on the chain of events on that fateful March day in 1990, investigators determined that the robbers were likely experienced with art heists.
When the theft took place, Myles was already in prison for a drug conviction. Though he has denied participating in the crime, he has said that he believes that his friend, Bobby Donati, was involved. He was murdered in 1991.
Myles has also admitted to committing about 30 art heists, and that stealing from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum was on his “bucket list.”
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Source: Netflix