The Gardner Heist Audiobook By Ulrich Boser cover art

The Gardner Heist

The True Story of the World's Largest Unsolved Art Theft

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The Gardner Heist

By: Ulrich Boser
Narrated by: Stephen Graybill
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Shortly after midnight on March 18, 1990, two men broke into the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston and committed the largest art heist in history. They stole a dozen masterpieces, including one Vermeer, three Rembrandts, and five Degas. But after thousands of leads - and a $5 million reward - none of the paintings have been recovered. Worth as much as $500 million, the missing masterpieces have become one of the nation's most extraordinary unsolved mysteries.

After the death of famed art detective Harold Smith, reporter Ulrich Boser decided to take up the case. Exploring Smith's unfinished leads, Boser travels deep into the art underworld and comes across a remarkable cast of characters, including a brilliant rock 'n' roll thief, a gangster who professes his innocence in rhyming verse, and the enigmatic late Boston heiress Isabella Stewart Gardner herself. Boser becomes increasingly obsessed with the case and eventually uncovers startling new evidence about the identities of the thieves. A tale of art and greed, of obsession and loss, The Gardner Heist is as compelling as the stolen masterpieces themselves.

A Bustle Pick for Mystery Lovers Who Don't Want to Read about Murder.

©2018 Ulrich Boser (P)2018 Blackstone Audio, Inc. Architecture Art History & Criticism
Fascinating Story • Good Enunciation • Unexpected Twists • Real Adventure • Even Tone • Nice Performance
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I normally like nonfiction about art heists - but this seemed more like the author's whining. The story was "meh" - but if it would have kept focused on the theft itself I would have liked it better. Kind of meanders and I kept losing interest as it played in the background. Pass.

Kept losing track of the storyline

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So, despite being a few years since this book was published, the heist is STILL unsolved.

Nonetheless, it's an interesting book, if somewhat alarming in letting the reader know how easy it is to steal art (not to mention profitable :/). PLEASE don't steal artwork!

For me, learning about Isabella Stewart Gardner was the most rewarding part of the book - not being local to Boston, I've been ignorant of both this interesting woman and her very special art museum.

DON'T STEAL THE ARTWORK!

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I finished this in 2 days! The story combined with the performance leaves the impression more of a film than a book recounting an art heist and its ramifications. I went into this knowing the art still hadn't been recovered and it didn't affect my interest one bit. I found myself secretly hoping Ulrich Boser would find the works (irrationally) and was sorry to come to the end of his story. His personal insights and self-reflections really serve to raise the stakes for the reader. Boser pays homage to investigator Harold Smith by consistently weaving in dialogue he had with the now deceased detective while he was alive and still pursuing the case, resulting in a portrait of Smith whose presence is felt throughout the book.

The unexpected twists and turns near the conclusion were fascinating- truth is most certainly stranger than fiction!

Loved it!

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I really enjoyed listening to this book. The story took me on a real adventure . Like a who done it.

Riveting an exciting story

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I’ve been hooked on the mystery for 30 years. Mr Boser has a very understanding wife.

I can understand the writer’s obsession with the lost art

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I was surprised at how interesting what started out as a dry subject ended up being. Well read.

Very interesting and informative

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For me, at least, this read like a cable-TV true crime series. A little bit of what you tuned in for interspersed with long bits of overly-detailed narrative akin to the madness behind click-bait Web sites that make you scroll past advertisements to read the meat of the piece.

The reader’s enunciation was good, but a handful of words were not in agreement with dictionary-guidance pronunciation. His tone was even and unvarying which wasn’t much better than droning. Not good for people with ADD.

Clearly not my preference in writing or narration, but your taste may vary. But here and there I did learn some interesting things about the heist. It made me want to revisit the museum.

Fascinating History

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I read this as part of a bookclub. I am so glad it was chosen. As a Massachusetts native I had know about the robbery but really none of the details surrounding it. Even today there are still searches happening to try to find the who, where and how.
Our club was so fortunate to zoom to England with the first detective on the scene of the heist. To this day, he still is following leads that come his way.
I you live near Boston, make a visit to the Gardener Museum. Not only is it quite astonishing but you can also see the empty frames still on the walls where the painting once were.

Still such a mystery...

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A very compelling story to listen to. although I already knew the artwork had not been recovered, I was waiting until the end hoping that I was wrong.
The reader did a nice job as well.

fascinating story

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The most notorious and still unsolved art heist in the last three decades. Thousands of tips, hundreds of leads, followed up over 30+ years, since the heist. The Boston police, the FBI Boston filed office, the FBI art recovery unit spent years pursuing the stolen art. Still missing to this day, journalist,Ulrich Boser, picked up where the insurance adjuster and Art recovery experts had picked trail up after the FBI’s Art recovery agent retired. From Boston mobsters claiming to know where the stolen art is located so they can get out of jail to under world connections in Ireland receiving the stolen art. The art is still still missing. Empty frames still hang in the I.S. Gardener Museum, visitors still mourn the loss. A riveting read.
The narration is a bit slow so I adjusted the speed to 1.2 to compensate.

The endless leads and endless dead ends in the search for the works of art stolen from the Isabella Stuart Gardener Museum

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