HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) – A Connecticut convict with loyalties to a Philadelphia crime family told an undercover FBI agent that he had access to two of the long-sought paintings stolen from Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in 1990 and could negotiate a sale of each for $500,000, a prosecutor said Monday.
Robert Gentile, a 78-year-old reputed mobster who was released from prison most recently a year ago, allegedly made the offer within the last several months to an agent posing as a drug dealer looking for help with a large-scale marijuana operation, prosecutor John Durham said.
The discussion Monday of the biggest art heist in U.S. history came at a hearing where the judge ordered Gentile detained following his arrest Friday on allegations that he sold a handgun for $1,000 to a convicted murderer who wanted it to collect a drug debt.
Gentile’s attorney, A. Ryan McGuigan, said his client began working with the FBI 3 1/2 years ago to aid in the recovery of the stolen artwork. But because the FBI believes Gentile has not been forthcoming with everything he knows about the heist, McGuigan said, the agency has set up his client for arrests twice in the last three years.
“It’s my argument that a crime isn’t committed if it’s not orchestrated by the FBI,” said McGuigan, who said his client is not withholding any information.