Happy Where’s My Vermeer? Day To All Who Celebrate

in the right foreground a small carved gilt frame is mounted, empty, where the vermeer used to be, against a black wall/pedestal, and set off from the surrounding ornate room by stanchions. to the left, on the back wall, in the center of the photo, is a 1635 zurburan portrait of a lawyer in a floor length red cape and mantle, and to the left of that painting, above three pink upholstered side chairs, is a large, empty carved gilt frame where a rembrandt used to be, only now it shows the silk upholstered wall behind it. david ryan took this photo for the boston globe at the gardner museum sometime in the last 35 years.
David L. Ryan’s photos for the Boston Globe of the empty frames of the Gardner Museum’s Rembrandt [L] and Vermeer [R].

The Gardner Museum heist was 35 years ago this morning, March 18th, 1990.