ART

Boston Art Theft, Part II: An original portrait of Benjamin Franklin, painted by Joseph Siffred Duplessis while Franklin was American envoy to Paris, was stolen from the Boston Public Library, police reported Friday. The robbery came less than a month after thieves stole 12 priceless and uninsured art treasures from the Isabella Stuart Gardner Museum in Boston. The valuable Franklin portrait was stolen sometime Friday from the main library’s Cheverus Room, where it hung 12 feet up on the wall. A custodian noticed the painting was missing, its gilded 3-by-4-foot frame lying on the floor, when he made his rounds at 5:20 p.m. Friday, 20 minutes after the library closed.