Task #8: Check out the Reissfelder Tip
George ReissfelderIn 2006, an inmate in prison for murder wrote Anthony Amore, the Gardner
Director of Security, a letter. That man, Robert Beauchamp, claimed that his former cell mate -- a man named George Reissfelder -- told him way back in 1990 that he had taken part in the heist. Beauchamp met George Reissfelder when they did time together in the 1970s. The men became close, and even escaped and lived together in 1974. Both were captured, and sent to separate prisons outside Massachusetts in 1977. The men stayed in touch despite the distance. In 1982, Reissfelder's conviction was overturned, and he was freed from prison. When Beauchamp was finally returned to a Massachusetts prison in 1987, the two men were in regular contact. From 1987 to 1991, Reissfelder visited Beauchamp in prison more than 100 times, and sent him hundreds of correspondences. It was during this time that Beauchamp claims he urged Reissfelder to steal a painting, a useful bargaining chip should Reissfelder or his crew ever get pinched for any of their other alleged criminal activities. Though he didn't specifically suggest the Gardner, Reissfelder and his associates began plotting the caper, and, according to Beauchamp, pulled off the art heist on March 18, 1990. Beauchamp also claimed that he had knowledge of addresses in Maine where Reissfelder may have hidden the art. “George told me he hit the jackpot,” Beauchamp told Anthony Amore in a 2009 jailhouse interview. “But he was careful how much he told me because we knew our conversations were being monitored." Nearly a year to the day after the heist, Reissfelder died of a cocaine overdose in his Boston-area apartment. Known associate, Carmello Merlino, was the one who found him and made the call to 9-1-1. Beauchamp believes Reissfelder moved the art after initially storing it, but didn't reveal the location to anyone before his death. At first, investigators were intrigued by Beauchamp’s information. But after the FBI and Amore went to several addresses searching for the stolen art and came up empty–handed, their faith started to fizzle. Then, another strange thing happened: Reissfelder’s brother came forward. Richard Reissfelder said, “I have seen that Chez Tortoni painting, and it was on the wall in my brother’s bedroom. I am sure of it.” “When I see [the canvas] I have the same reaction every time. ‘I’ve seen it. I’ve seen the painting,’” Reissfelder told reporters from the Boston Herald. George Reissfelder had run with David Turner’s underworld crew. He also looks jaw-droppingly similar to one of the sketches of the robbers made after the heist, and a confidential informant once told the FBI that George Reissfelder was one of the thieves. The Gardner Museum’s director of security, Anthony Amore, helped develop the Reissfelder lead by reaching out to the family. “I don’t know if Richard Reissfelder saw our Manet, but I do believe that he believed he saw our Manet,” Amore told me recently. Unfortunately, Richard says the painting disappeared shortly after George's death. The strange part of his death, was that Carmello Merlino, known cocaine dealer, was the person who found him after he died of acute cocaine posioning. |
Next Lead...
The painter of Chez Tortoni, Édouard Manet, was a French artist that was a pivotal figure in the transition from Realism to which art movement?