Synopsis
In 1990, in the early morning hours after St. Patrick’s Day, thieves disguised as Boston police officers gained access to Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner museum and successfully perpetrated the largest art heist in modern history. Among the thirteen priceless paintings stolen were works by Rembrandt, Degas and Manet. But none is more sorely missed than The Concert by Johannes Vermeer, one of only 35 surviving works by the beloved Dutch master. For those who loved these paintings, particularly the rare Vermeer, the theft felt almost personal. At the heart of the film is a very unlikely hero: Harold Smith, the most renowned art detective in the world. Despite his lifetime battle with skin cancer, the cunning and witty Smith has made this case his personal obsession. Now, with Dreyfus’s camera in tow, Smith embarks on a final journey to crack a mystery that has confounded law enforcement officials for fifteen years. The mood is set through the reading by actors Blythe Danner and Campbell Scott of correspondence between the 19th century Grand Dame Isabella Stewart Gardner and her envoy to Europe, art aficionado Bernard Berenson. Their passion for great art, expressed in letters written during their pursuit of paintings for Gardner’s great museum, is elaborated by contemporary art historians. Among them, Tracy Chevalier, author of Girl With a Pearl Earring, helps us understand the power and fragility of great art and appreciate just what the world has lost. Harold Smith’s quest to recover the Gardner paintings takes him through the Boston criminal underground. It takes him to Ireland to investigate the theory that the Irish Republican Army, known to have a penchant for stealing Vermeers, may be involved. It takes him on wild goose chases, and precipitously close to the truth. STOLEN takes the audience along on this thrilling journey through the worlds of art and crime, not only to solve a perplexing mystery, but also to understand the mysterious importance of art and beauty.