Free What Evil Lurks in Monet's Pond: A by Sara M. Barton Page A

because he
wanted to see me. He wanted to make this an international
investigation. The question is why? What did it have to do with
those WikiLeaks?
    I continued to work on my drawing for another
couple of hours, losing myself in the process. Turning off my
conscious mind for a bit, I drifted in and out of thought.
Everything I had read about Hermione Wells Tattinger made me think
she was incredibly self-absorbed, more interested in the value of
her name than her paintings or stable of artists. It was all for
show.
    In what ways was she like her idol, Isabella
Stewart Gardner? Gardner had drawn up that ridiculous will,
insisting that time stand still and her museum be forever
unchanged, much to the frustration of several curators. I still had
my own theory on what had occurred. In my humble opinion, it was a
crime of passion -- most likely by a member of the board of
directors, probably more than one. Look at the goal of breaking the
will in order to protect the artwork. How would one achieve it? By
stealing the paintings from the museum, showing how antiquated the
security was, and also by highlighting the conditions within the
museum. The paintings in the Gardner at the time of the theft were
rotting without the proper climate control.
    I once heard a rumor -- I can’t say who the
source was -- who suggested that at the time of the Gardner heist,
there was a man, an avid art collector, who had just learned he was
infected with HIV. Knowing that he was likely to develop full-blown
AIDS and die within a few years, this wealthy individual with deep
roots in the Boston social scene did something very unusual,
something totally out of his normal comfort zone. He planned a
crime. Not a crime as grave as the one the people at the Gardner
Museum committed, allowing those priceless works of art to crumble
to dust. No, his was a minor crime. It was a matter of fooling the
police and the public into thinking the paintings had left the
building. For months, those paintings were said to be tucked away
in the restoration room, where paintings were frequently brought to
be touched up, cleaned, and returned to the less than desirable
conditions of the Gardner Museum.
    It was also said that the man had some
serious accomplices, dedicated art lovers who were willing and able
to assist him in not only breaking Isabella Stewart Gardner’s
ironclad will, but in improving the museum from top to bottom,
building another wing, adding improvements to the old section -- in
other words, creating a whole new museum.
    If the rumors were true, you might ask, why
haven’t the paintings resurfaced yet? Why weren’t they discovered
and returned once the museum was redone? The speculative answer, in
some art circles at least, is that the man, who was prepared to
take the fall for all of the people who helped him take charge of
the deteriorating artwork, got a reprieve. His HIV was managed,
never developing into AIDS. He didn’t die. Hence, the plan to have
his lawyer return the treasures to the Isabella Stewart Gardner
Museum never happened. Poor Charlie on the MTA still can’t get off
without forking over his nickel. You see, according to those with
their ears pressed to the ground, listening to the talk, the man
planned to leave an enormous chunk of cash to the museum, but only
after his death and only once the board of directors got rid of the
ridiculous will.
    I know a lot of really passionate art lovers
who would have backed the man up with whatever he needed -- cash,
restoration services, even willing to pose as the thieves. Not your
normal criminals at all. Maybe that’s why they got away with it. It
wasn’t done to profit from the sale of the paintings. It wasn’t
done to abscond with treasures. It was done to fix what was broken
within the museum’s management. That’s why the people weren’t
popping up on law enforcement radar. They truly believed what they
were doing would save what was best about the Gardner’s collection
for