Clock ticks down on Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum $10mn art reward deadline

It’s the largest property crime in US history: the three-decade-old theft of Rembrandt and Vermeer masterpieces from a Boston museum by thieves disguised as police officers in the dead of night. But as the clock ticks toward midnight on New Year’s Eve, one detective sits patiently by the telephone and computer screen: could the next call or email finally lead to their recovery and the payout of a $10 million reward? “It’s hard to be confident. I’m very hopeful,” said Anthony Amore, director of security at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, who worked previously for Homeland Security and likens his role to that of a private detective. “One hundred percent of our focus is following up on leads we have received.” In May, the museum temporarily doubled to $10 million a long-standing reward for information leading to the recovery of all 13 works in good condition, hoping that a deadline of midnight on December 31, 2017 would concentrate minds.