They came disguised as police officers, stayed for 81 minutes and left with a heist worth over half a billion dollars. To this day, no one knows who they were and the items they stole have never been found.
In 1990, two men disguised as Boston Police officers buzzed the intercom of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. They told the guards they were responding to a disturbance call. Believing they were real police officers, the night guards broke protocol and let them in through the main entrance.
Once inside, the thieves told the guards to step away from the watch desk. Within minutes, the guards were overpowered, handcuffed and tied to a pole in the basement with duct tape over their eyes.
With nobody left to stop them, the thieves roamed freely. Over the next 70 minutes, they stole 13 pieces of art that were valued around $500 million. Interestingly, they didn't steal the most valuable painting in the museum, a Titian worth around $250 million.
The thieves left the museum at around 2:45 AM. However, the heist wasn't discovered until the morning shift guards arrived at 8:00 AM and found empty frames hanging on the wall and the night guards still tied up. The police were informed immediately and a massive investigation was launched.
Now, 36 years later, none of the stolen artworks have been recovered and investigators have never been able to identify the two men behind one of the biggest art heists in history.