Harvard Lampoon Takes False Credit for a Fake Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Heist

While millions are riveted by Sunday’s seven-minute jewelry heist of Napoleonic jewels at the Louvre, another major sizable snatching, the 1990 break-in at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, resurfaced in the news in a different way.

As far as college pranks go, the one The Harvard Lampoon orchestrated was pricey. In a full-page advertisement in the Thursday issue of The New York Times, the pranksters at the university’s 149-year-old humor magazine wrote a lengthy erroneous explanation under the headline “Harvard Lampoon Students Responsible for Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Heist.” The Harvard students’ made-up heist was of an oak cabinet with a weight-transfer device from the museum’s Dutch Room that is part of a matching pair in The Lampoon’s headquarters that was a gift from the eccentric socialite Gardner.

A full-page ad in the New York Times is said to run upward of $72,000. The Harvard jokesters’ ad noted that a $10 million reward is being offered for the return of the 13 missing masterpieces that were taken from the Boston museum 35 years ago. After-hour thieves ran off with more than $500 million worth of art. There were also 13 images of the missing pieces of art, including Rembrandt’s “Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man” circa 1633. Above a half-page photo of eight students carrying out the fake theft, the text reads, “Advertisement, paid for by returning Rembrandt.”

Dubbed “the Lioness of Boston,” Gardner once walked a lion by its mane around the Boston Zoo in 1897, attended a Boston Symphony Orchestra performance in Boston Red Sox regalia and favored a nearly entire black and white couture wardrobe from Paris resources like the House of Worth. Gardner, whom artist John Singer Sargent immortalized in a portrait, was high-low in her tastes, having served Champagne and donuts at her museum’s 1903 opening following a BSO performance. The Harvard Lampoon’s ad offered two suggested surrender dates, April Fool’s Day and April 14. The latter marks the 186-year anniversary of Gardner’s birthday. (Next year also celebrates The Harvard Lampoon’s 150-year milestone.)

The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum said in a statement that the “advertorial,” which included a disclaimer, was published without the museum’s consent. “There is no truth to this narrative, part of a ‘prank’ by students of the Harvard Lampoon. The theft of 13 masterpieces from the Gardner Museum in 1990 remains unsolved. The Gardner Museum’s investigation, in coordination with the FBI, is active and ongoing. The museum is offering a $10 million reward for information leading to the safe return of the stolen works. Anyone with facts relating to the theft, please contact: reward@gardnermuseum.org.”

Media requests to the Harvard Lampoon were unreturned, as were ones to Harvard University’s media team. A spokesperson for the U.S. attorney for Massachusetts, whose office is working with the FBI, described the investigation as “active and ongoing,” but declined to comment about the spoof or whether it has generated any new leads. An automatic response to a media request to the FBI indicated that it is prioritizing national security, violations of federal law and essential public safety functions, during the government shutdown.