And they are, in the most direct sense, a statement to whoever has the paintings. The museum is not done. The investigation is not closed. The works are not forgotten. Whoever holds them should know—and presumably does know, if they have followed the case at all—that the Gardner Museum is waiting.
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## The Ongoing Investigation and 2025 Status
As of March 2025, on the thirty-fifth anniversary of the theft, the FBI’s investigation remained active and no arrests had been made. The museum and the FBI both continued to seek public assistance.
FBI Special Agent-in-Charge Jodi Cohen of the Boston field office participated in anniversary coverage that year, emphasizing that the case was ongoing and that the $10 million reward remained available. Geoffrey Kelly, recently retired from his role as the FBI’s primary Gardner case agent after more than two decades, published his detailed account of the investigation—*Thirteen Perfect Fugitives*—in 2026, making public for the first time a comprehensive investigative narrative that had been assembled over decades of work.
Kelly’s book—his own assessment, not an official FBI finding—identifies George Reissfelder and Lenny DiMuzio as the men who entered the museum, Carmello Merlino as the likely organizer, and Rick Abath as someone whose role may have been more than passive. Kelly believes the Rembrandts were the primary targets and that Merlino or someone above him in the criminal hierarchy had provided specific instruction about what to take.
For the pieces themselves, Kelly believes they still exist and may surface in an attic or storage unit at some future point—that the criminal networks that originally controlled them have largely dissolved through death and prosecution, leaving the art in the hands of people who may not know what they have or what to do with it.