The name Myles Connor has become interlinked with Art Heists. Famously brazen and daring, Connor stole priceless works from museums and private residences, including a Rembrandt and paintings by N.C. Wyeth, over a decades-long criminal career. In The Art of the Heist (2010), Myles Connor recounts his turbulent and troubled life with the assistance of author Jenny Siler. Disclaimer: If you are looking strictly for an Art Heist book, you may want to look further, as about 80% of the material in this book is unrelated to Art Crime… but is fascinating nevertheless. Connor details his exploits as an up-and-coming Rock & Roll performer in the 1960's, his early criminal exploits and misdeeds, a successful escape from prison using a fake gun carved from a bar of soap, his overturned rape case, several bank robberies and a double-murder conviction and subsequent acquittal of the heinous crime. There is also much space given to his criminal friendships and dealings in the prison system. Through much of the text, Connor offers few excuses and little remorse for his crimes. The all-too-brief Art Theft sections, which undoubtedly are the main selling points of the book, are interesting and offer insights into the thinking and planning process behind the thefts. Details are presented about how Connor burglarized the Woolworth Estate in Maine, stole a truckload of art and antiques, and was later caught by the FBI after trying to sell paintings by N.C. Wyeth taken during the theft. Myles Connor's most famous art heist, however, occurred on April 14,1975... when he ripped a million-dollar Rembrandt portrait off the wall of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and ran like hell to a waiting getaway car, fighting off a tough elderly security guard, aided by armed accomplices. Connor later struck a deal to return the Rembrandt, using the painting as a bargaining tool to have a pending prison sentence reduced. This established a grim precedent of bartering the return of art for leniency on criminal acts that would be utilized by other criminals in subsequent years. Towards the end of the narrative, Connor discusses his role in the infamous 1990 Heist at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum: an as yet unsolved crime during which 13 masterpieces were stolen, including a Vermeer and three Rembrandts. According to Connor, who was in prison at the time of the heist, he had planned on robbing the Gardner Museum years before. He cased the building and chose what he wanted to steal, but did not get around to it. Myles Connor claims that associates of his, Bobby Donati and David Houghton, were responsible for robbing the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. However, both Donati and Houghton are dead now, and (as the book's text will illustrate) Connor has a propensity for fabrication. So, if taken for what it is, Myles Connor's memoir is a grandstanding yet intriguing true-crime tale, certainly worth the time spent reading it.
Myles Connor
Myles Connor with a soap gun used to break out of prison
The MFA Stolen Rembrandt and Myles Connor
Myles Connor mugshot
The Rembrandt stolen from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston by Myles Connor
Myles Connor
The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
The Gardner Heist, Stolen Rembrandt
Persons of Interest- the 1990 Gardner Museum Heist
La Bella Principessa. by Leonardo da Vinci. Mystery of a Masterpiece: La Bella Principessa
Mystery of a Masterpiece:
"La Bella Principessa," possibly by Leonardo Da Vinci
by Travis Simpkins
Filmed in 2012 for the NOVA series on PBS, Mystery of a Masterpiece took a detailed look at the intriguing portrait of a young lady in profile, dubbed "La Bella Principessa", that is now often (but disputably) attributed as a previously unknown work by the great Italian Renaissance master Leonardo Da Vinci. Purchased by a Mr. Silverman in 2007 for $22,000… the small mixed media work on vellum could be worth upwards of $100,000,000 if the Leonardo connection can be solidified. The hour-long episode examines the integral aspects of concluding the authenticity of the work… which was sold by Christie's in the 1990's as an "early 19th Century German work." First, the age of the vellum is determined by carbon dating, placing it in the proper 15th-16th Century timeframe for being a Leonardo. Next, the method, style and technique are studied and recreated by a forger and an art instructor… concluding that it was made by a left-handed person using a highly unique and experimental drawing method, which also fits. By examining the edges of the vellum, it is thought probable that it was cut from a book, accounting for it's uncatalogued status. Art Historian Martin Kemp, basing his theory on the hairstyle of the sitter and the time frame in Leonardo's career, places the portrait as having been made in 1490's Milan for a book celebrating the wedding of Bianca Sforza. Furthermore, Kemp finds the wedding book, called "La Sforziada", in the Biblioteka Narodawa in Warsaw, Poland. After close analysis, it is concluded that a page is missing from the book and the marks of the drawing seem to match the book's stitching. For a short view, this show is well-worth the time spent watching it. Martin Kemp published a book on his findings, "La Bella Principessa: The Story of the New Masterpiece by Leonardo Da Vinci."
the current owner bought the work in 2007. Mystery of a Masterpiece: La Bella Principessa
Mystery of a Masterpiece: La Bella Principessa
Mystery of a Masterpiece: La Bella Principessa
Mystery of a Masterpiece: La Bella Principessa
Mystery of a Masterpiece: La Bella Principessa
Leo Stevenson
Mystery of a Masterpiece: La Bella Principessa
woman profile drawing by Leonardo da Vinci. Mystery of a Masterpiece: La Bella Principessa
Martin Kemp examines La Sforziada. Mystery of a Masterpiece: La Bella Principessa
La Sforziada. Mystery of a Masterpiece: La Bella Principessa
La Sforziada. Mystery of a Masterpiece: La Bella Principessa
NOVA: Mystery of a Masterpiece: La Bella Principessa
