The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston is a fascinating place both in terms of its architecture, which is designed to resemble a 15th-century Venetian palace, and the art contained within it, which includes works by Titain, Vermeer, Botticelli, Rembrandt, Michelangelo, and Degas, among many others. It’s also the setting for the largest property theft in history – one that has never been solved.

The museum was founded by Isabella Stewart Gardner (1840-1924), a Boston socialite who inherited her wealth from her father’s Manhattan linen business. Gardner lost her two-year old son to pneumonia and after a miscarriage the next year she was told that she would be unable to have children. This, paired with the death of a close friend, sent her into a deep depression. Doctors recommended travel to lift her spirits, and the subsequent trip across Russia and Europe inspired her to collect art. Together with her husband Jack, Isabella traveled the world collecting paintings, photographs, tapestries, architectural elements, and more – but her acquisitions outgrew her home and when Jack died in 1898 Isabella threw herself into the work of creating a museum to house them.

Gardner commissioned architect William Sears, and designed the museum around her collection. Sears half-joked that he was only a structural engineer assisting Gardner in realizing her vision, as Gardner was insistent that her meticulous plans for the creation were followed exactly and without deviation. Construction took place between 1898-1901 and the museum opened in 1903; it must have been a breathtaking moment for the public to witness it for the first time and, thanks to Isabella’s endowment to the museum to ensure it would be open “for the education and enjoyment of the public forever”, it remains so today. One can’t help but be struck by Gardner’s talent, generosity, and dedication in amassing such an overwhelming display of over 15,000 artworks and artifacts that span both the globe and human history, ranging from medieval manuscripts to Grecian ceramics – and in her will, which left money to the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, the Industrial School for Crippled and Deformed Children, the Animal Rescue League, and the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

In 1990, the largest art heist in history took place at the Gardner Museum when two men posed as police officers, tied up guards, and spent the next hour looting the museum. Thirteen pieces from the collection were stolen, including works by Rembrandt, Degas, and Manet, with a combined value estimated to be $500 million. Despite investigations by the Boston police and the FBI into the city’s organized crime scene, the theft remains unsolved to this day, with the museum offering a $10 million reward for information leading to the recovery of the artwork.

While the loss of the artwork is a tragedy, there is more than enough to see at the museum today despite its loss. The grounds consist of both the original museum and an expansion completed in 2012 that allows for special exhibits, concerts, a visitor café, and a well-curated gift shop. The audio tour is recommended, as there are no placards identifying the work for visitors – an approach I appreciated, as it allows you to wander about and take in the objects for what they are at first, and learn more about them if you wish. It is a place in which you can still feel Gardner’s spirit, and as such is unlike many other art museums with modern construction and curation, where presentation can feel sterile and corporate. It is clear in what she collected and the great pains she went to in ensuring her vision for presentation was met that Gardner had many stories to tell those who explored her museum – and that there is much to learn for those who go there to listen.