A Party of Merrymakers by Pieter Quast

This is 'A Party of Merrymakers' by the Dutch Golden Age painter Pieter Quast, painted in 1635, and it is currently missing. The painting was one of thirteen works stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston in 1990. The heist remains unsolved, and the FBI still lists it as an open case with a $10 million reward.

Quast's scene captures a moment of pure, unguarded social energy inside a dimly lit tavern. A woman in a voluminous golden dress laughs openly, wine glass raised. A man in a rakish feathered hat leans into her space, his forward posture and the extravagant plumes marking him as a stock gallant in Dutch genre painting. Behind them, a man in a white lace collar gapes in surprise or laughter, turning a flirtation into public theater. And if you look carefully into the dark doorway on the far left, a servant or observer lurks in shadow, a classic hidden witness that changes the whole scene's social dynamic.

Pieter Quast lived and worked in Amsterdam and The Hague, known for small-scale genre scenes and lively character studies. He died in 1647, long before his painting would become part of one of the most famous unsolved art crimes in history. On the night of March 18, 1990, two men dressed as police officers talked their way into the Gardner Museum, handcuffed the guards, and spent 81 minutes selecting specific works. They cut this painting from its frame along with the others.

Thirty-five years later, the empty frames still hang on the museum's walls as placeholders. The museum has publicly stated they will put them back the moment the paintings return.