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## The Museum After the Theft
The Gardner Museum has not stood still in the thirty-six years since the theft. It has continued to function as a museum, continued to develop its programs, and continued to be one of the most distinctive collecting institutions in the United States—while simultaneously carrying the weight of the missing works and the ongoing investigation.
The most visible physical change was the addition of a new wing designed by architect Renzo Piano, completed in 2012 at a cost of $118 million. The Piano addition expanded the museum’s capacity for programs, education, and special exhibitions without disturbing the historic Fenway Court galleries where Gardner’s collection is arranged according to her original vision. The constraint of Gardner’s will—that the collection remain arranged as she left it—meant that the new wing had to expand the institution without touching the original building’s interior.
The Dutch Room itself is undergoing restoration work as of 2026. The museum has announced that the room is scheduled to reopen in 2027. The restoration addresses the physical condition of the gallery—the walls, the lighting, the surfaces that have been maintained for more than a century under the pressures of visitor traffic and time—not the missing works themselves. When the Dutch Room reopens, the empty frames will be there.
Anthony Amore, who serves as the museum’s director of security and investigations, has been a consistent public voice on the Gardner case for years. His position—actively investigating the theft, maintaining relationships with law enforcement agencies and art crime specialists, keeping the case in public view—reflects the museum’s commitment to treating the theft as an ongoing matter rather than a historical wound that has to be managed.