Connor’s account of the Gardner theft’s planning—that Bobby Donati had “cased” the museum with him before hiring others to carry it out—was taken seriously enough to be investigated, but it could not be independently verified. Donati was dead. The men Connor implicated were dead or unavailable. Connor himself had every reason to emphasize the roles of others and minimize his own.
What Connor’s account provided was a narrative that was consistent with other investigative threads: the fixation on Rembrandt, the Dorchester crew connections, the idea of a commission from someone higher in the criminal hierarchy. Whether his account is fully accurate, partially accurate, or self-serving is impossible to determine from outside the investigation.
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## The Reward and What It Has Produced
The Gardner Museum’s reward for information leading to the recovery of the stolen works is currently $10 million—the amount was raised from the original $5 million to $10 million, with the increase announced in 2017. The museum also offers a separate $100,000 reward specifically for information about the Napoleonic eagle finial.
The reward conditions, as the museum has stated them, offer immunity from prosecution for the return of the works under certain conditions. The statute of limitations on the original theft has expired. This means that someone who has had the paintings in their possession—who acquired them from the thieves, who inherited them from a criminal family member, who stored them unknowingly—may not face criminal exposure by coming forward. The specific legal analysis would depend on individual circumstances, but the museum and the FBI have consistently said that their primary goal is recovery of the art, not prosecution.