The investigation began that day. It has not ended.
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## The FBI Takes the Case
The investigation was handled from the beginning as a federal matter, given that the stolen property crossed state lines and that federal art theft statutes applied. The FBI’s Boston field office was the primary agency, with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts involved as potential prosecution would have been pursued federally.
The initial investigative resources were, by later accounts, inadequate to the scale of the case. Former FBI agent Geoffrey Kelly, who led the Gardner investigation from 2002 until his retirement in April 2024 and who published a detailed account of the investigation in 2026, described the early investigation as hampered by insufficient personnel. A single agent was assigned initially, which Kelly has said significantly slowed the gathering of leads.
Early theories proliferated. The Irish Republican Army connection emerged quickly—the IRA had a history of art theft as a fundraising mechanism and had operatives in the Boston area. The theory was investigated extensively and eventually set aside. No credible evidence connecting the IRA to the Gardner theft was found.
Whitey Bulger’s name circulated early. Bulger was at the time the most powerful organized crime figure in Boston—the head of the Winter Hill Gang, and, as became known much later, a longtime FBI informant. The Bulger organization had the street-level network, the willingness to carry out brazen crimes, and connections to every corner of Boston’s criminal ecosystem. But investigators pursued the Bulger lead without finding evidence that connected him directly to the theft. Art theft was not Whitey Bulger’s business.