Kelly also brings a specific kind of patience to his assessment. He does not believe the case is unsolvable. He believes it is unsolved, which is a different thing. The distinction matters: an unsolvable case is one in which the necessary evidence does not exist and cannot be developed. An unsolved case is one in which the evidence has not yet been assembled, the right person has not yet come forward, the hidden thing has not yet surfaced. Kelly’s view is that the Gardner case is the second kind.
Anthony Amore, the Gardner Museum’s director of security and investigations, has been the museum’s primary public voice on the theft for years. Amore’s role is different from Kelly’s—he represents the institution rather than the government, and his investigation is oriented toward recovery rather than prosecution. He has maintained relationships with art crime specialists, with law enforcement agencies in multiple countries, and with the network of people who pay professional attention to the stolen art market.
Amore’s public statements have been consistently careful about the limits of what is known. He has not named suspects in the public way that Kelly has. He has said that it is impossible to determine whether the pieces are still together or have been separated. He has maintained the museum’s position that the investigation is active and that recovery remains possible.
The two men—Kelly and Amore—represent complementary perspectives on the same case: the law enforcement view oriented toward establishing criminal responsibility, and the institutional view oriented toward getting the art back. Both perspectives have been active in the Gardner investigation for decades.