Report: Arrest Details for Manchester Man Suspected of Mob Ties, Having Info on Biggest Art Heist

Update 5:29 p.m.:

The Office of the U.S. Attorney for Connecticut announced late Friday afternoon that Robert Gentile, 78, of Manchester was arrested Friday, charged by federal criminal complaint with firearm offenses.

Gentile is accused of selling a .38 Colt Cobra revolver, loaded with five rounds of ammunition, on March 2 to a man he knew to be a convicted felon. Gentile, a convicted felon himself, is not allowed to possess ammunition or sell a firearm to a felon. Each of those two crimes carries a maximum prison term of 10 years.

He appeared Friday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas P. Smith in Hartford. He is being detained until an April 20 hearing in federal court.

Gentile is on supervised release from a previous federal conviction, and he could face additional penalties if he is found to have violated the terms and conditions of that release, according to prosecutors.

The FBI investigated Gentile with help from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Update 1:19 p.m.:

Federal authorities are accusing Robert Gentile of Manchester of selling a gun to an undercover law enforcement operative, according to the Hartford Courant.

Gentile is suspected of having information on the 1990 theft of 13 works, many by Old Masters, from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston in part because when his home was searched years ago, law enforcement officers found a list of the paintings with estimated black market sales value, along with police uniforms — the thieves in 1990 were dressed in police uniforms when they robbed the museum, according to the Courant.

When Gentile, now 78 years old, took a lie detector test in 2012, the results were 99 percent probable that he was lying when he denied knowledge about the heist, federal officials said, according to the Courant.

Original article:

NBC Connecticut reports that Robert Gentile of Manchester, suspected of mob ties, previously convicted in federal court and a man suspected of having information on the greatest art heist in history, has been arrested.

But the news organization doesn’t know what the charges are or what they’re connected to.

According to a report Friday afternoon on the television station’s website, the man’s attorney said Gentile has been arrested by federal authorities.

In May 2013, Gentile, then 76 years old, was convicted on charges related to prescription drugs and weapons. At the time, officials said the FBI believes he has information on the theft of millions of dollars worth of paintings by Old Masters from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, according to a previous NBC Connecticut report.

Paintings by Rembrandt, Vermeer, Degas and Manet stolen in the 1990 heist are estimated to be worth more than half a billion dollars, according to the previous report, making it the greatest art theft in history, in terms of estimated value.

How to Make a Cool $5 million

The museum is offering a reward of $5 million for recovery of the works in good condition. If you happen to have seen them hanging around Manchester or anywhere else, you can contact Anthony Amore, the Gardner Museum’s director of security, at 617 278 5114 or theft@gardnermuseum.org. (Don’t even think of trying to sell them — the paintings are much too famous.)

Pictured (from the Gardner Museum website): Two of the paintings stolen in the 1990 heist, Rembrandt’s “Christ in the Storm on the See of Galilee” (1633) and Vermeer’s “The Concert” (about 1665)

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