FBI Issues Composite Drawings of Art Thieves

The FBI issued composite drawings of the two thieves who pulled off one of the biggest art thefts of the century, and the number of tips coming from the public has stepped up, an official said today.

Clad in police uniforms, the pair talked their way into the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum early Sunday, then overpowered the two guards on duty and took 11 paintings, drawings and prints by such artists as Rembrandt and Degas. They also swiped an ancient Chinese vase and a gilded eagle from the flagpole of a Napoleonic flag.

Lyle Grindle, director of museum security, said this morning that since the composites went out Wednesday afternoon, the pace of calls from tipsters seemed to have increased. A $1-million reward has been offered for information for the return of the pictures.

“We’re getting information,” he said. “We’re getting lots of calls, from all aspects.”

Even before the $1-million reward was posted and the pictures were issued, tipsters began calling the Gardner Museum and the FBI, hinting they knew where the artworks could be found, officials said Wednesday.

At the same time, with two of the museum’s looted rooms now behind police barricades, the public was allowed inside Wednesday for the first time since the crime.