The south windsor connection

You might be getting tired of hearing about the isabella stewart gardner museum but this musing from main could be worth $10 million dollars! The focus of this musing is south windsor's connection to the isabella stewart gardner heist. If you would like to explore previous musings on isabella stewart gardner the person, the museum and the heist, They are all available on our website under the musing from main: history online exhibit.

Take a field trip with us to boston!

The friends have finalized a "field trip" to boston to visit the isabella stewart gardner museum. If you are interested please pre-register. There are a limited number of seats available and we have just announced the trip to a wider public audience.
Post road stages will take us to and from beantown on june 23, 2023, for a day of fun to include a guided tour of the gardner museum.

Details including an itinerary are available on our website

The Suspect

Robert "bobby the cook" gentile

Manchester, connecticut resident robert gentile, now deceased, became the target of the fbi's investigation into the art heist when the widow of boston gangster, robert "unk" gurente, told the fbi an interesting story.  She said that before her husband passed away, he gave two of the paintings to gentile in the parking lot of a portland, maine, hotel. The fbi's investigation uncovered that someone they thought was a low level hartford area criminal was actually a made member of the philadelphia mafia, living a second, secret life as a much more sinister criminal in boston.
For gentile's part he denied all criminal wrongdoing but did agree with some of the information the widow gave to the feds. Gentile agreed that the two couples, dined together at a lobster house, going on to say he and his wife liked to occasionally drive to portland, maine, from their manchester home to indulge in gentile's passion for good food.

The manchester house

Gentile lived with his wife in an unassuming ranch-style house in manchester and reportedly drove a 1989 buick. Nothing that would suggest that he may have access to $500 million dollars worth of stolen art.
Apparently gentile and guarente, who died in 2004, became partners in the 1970s after meeting at a used car auction located in a suburb outside hartford. According to a retired fbi agent, gentile often traveled to his secret life in boston with a couple of connecticut associates in tow that he used as “muscle.”
Gentile first became a person of interest in 2010 and over the ensuing decades, fbi agents repeatedly searched the manchester home.  They never found any art but they did come across a list of the stolen gardner art with estimated black market values written next to them.  They also found police uniforms, and phony police credentials along with a plethora of guns, cash, and drugs.

The informants

Fbi agents recruited two cousins, sebastian “sammy” mozzicato and ronnie bowes, gentile associates for decades, as part of a sting in 2014. The agents had hopes that the sting would shake loose some information and thus, the location the art.

A south windsor italian restaurant

The sting failed but not before the cousins enabled the agents to record gentile making several incriminating statements. In one of the recordings gentile committed to selling a few of the paintings for millions of dollars. Some of these damning recordings were made over meals at an italian restaurant in south windsor.  The building still stands although the italian restaurant has closed.

Mozzicato also revealed to the hartford courant that he and bowes had on many occasions seen what he believed to be one of the lesser-known stolen gardner piece — a 200-year-old gilded eagle. The eagle which served as a finial for a napoleonic flagstaff was kept on a shelf at the used car business gentile used to own.  The auto shop is still standing and is located on route 5 in south windsor. At the time of the courant interview, mozzicato went on to say he thinks gentile sold the finial at some point.

The empty frames and the ones left behind

Robert gentile passed away in september 2021 perhaps taking with him any chance that the stolen art would be recovered.  If you have any information about the stolen art or its purported time in the area, contact anthony amore using the contact info on the flyer at the beginning of this musing.  You may be in line for some serious reward money!
Explore more details about the local connection to the largest art heist in history by using the links listed below, and don't miss our upcoming bus trip to boston to see the empty frames and the works of art that were left behind.

Sources used for this Musing are listed below

-Khvan, Olga, "Here’s Why the FBI’s Gardner Museum Investigation Focused on Robert Gentile", Boston Magazine, January 5, 2016, retrieved   May 26, 2023.

-Kovaleski, Serge F. and Mashberg,Tom, "Reputed Mobster May Be Last Link to Gardner Museum Art Heist", The New York Times, April 24, 2015 retrieved May 26, 2023.

-Mahony, Edmund, "Gone but not forgotten: Mobster Robert ‘The Cook’ Gentile surfaces in new lead connected to $500M Gardner Museum art heist", Hartford    Courant, February 28, 2022, retrieved May 26, 2023.

-Mahony, Edmund, "Reputed Mobster’s Associate Adds New Mystery To Gardner Museum Art Heist," Hartford Courant, Published January 3, 2016, Updated December 12, 2018, retrieved May 26, 2023.

-Mahony, Edmund, "Prosecutors Reveal More Evidence They Say Ties Robert Gentile To Gardner Museum Robbery," Hartford Courant, January 7, 2016, retrieved May 26, 2023.

-Mahony, Edmund, "Feds: Mob Soldier Gentile Claimed Access To Priceless Art That Vanished In Notorious Heist", Hartford Courant, April 20, 2015, retrieved May 26, 2023.