Unexpected Consequences of an Artistic Vision?

When Isabella Stewart designed the galleries for her museum, she knew exactly what she wanted. She was so certain that she designated the position of every piece in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, photographing each installation to ensure that nothing was ever changed. Who could quibble with a creator/founder who wanted to sustain her vision in perpetuity?

Then again, what happens when thieves break in and steal 13 works? You could offer a $10 million reward for information leading to the recovery of those works. Done. You could investigate and watch for the works to surface. Done by the Museum, the FBI, and the US Attorney's office since 1990. But, if the works are gone and the galleries must remain unchanged, how can that work?

Who was Isabella Stewart

"Mrs. Jack Gardner is one of the seven wonders of Boston. There is nobody like her in any city in this country. She is a millionaire Bohemienne. She is the leader of the smart set, but she often leads where none dare follow ... She imitates nobody; everything she does is novel and original." A Boston Reporter - The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

What was her vision?

When she died in 1924, she left a museum "for the education and enjoyment of the public forever."

She provided an endowment to operate the museum, stipulating in her will that nothing in the galleries should be changed and no items be acquired or sold from the collection. - The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

What has the museum done?

After the theft of 13 works of art in the early hours of March 18, 1998, unable to change the placement of any objects or add to the collection, the museum opted to hang empty frames where the paintings had been. - The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

The stolen works

Degas - Leaving the Paddock; Procession on a Road in Florence; Three Mounted Jockeys: Study for the Programme; Study for the Programme

Chaudet - Eagle Finial

Chinese - Gu

Flinck - Landscape with an Obelisk

Manet - Chez Tortoni

Rembrandt - A Lady and Gentleman in Black; Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee: Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

Vermeer - The Concert

Then again, is it the unexpected consequences of a vision or of the insistence that nothing could be changed? It may seem a distinction without a difference, but in the cast of this heist, it doesn't seem so.

Curious about Gardner? So am I. Join me in reading Chasing Beauty: The Life of Isabella Stewart Gardner by Natalie Dykstra