Arthur Brand, a private Dutch investigator known as the “Indiana Jones of the art world” is making headlines once again. This time, it’s because of a CBS This Morning news segment in which he claims scientific certainty that a half-billion-dollar trove of paintings stolen in 1990 is currently secreted in Ireland.
“I’m 100 percent sure that they are in Ireland. Hundred percent sure. No doubt in my mind,” Brand told interviewer Seth Doane.
He says he has “leads” that point him to the current whereabouts of the masterpieces, taken 27 years ago during a nighttime heist at the Isabella Stewart Gardner museum in Boston. And these leads point him to the Irish Republican Army, or IRA.
“We have had talks with… former members of the IRA—and after a few Guinnesses, after a few talks—you can see in their eyes that they know more,” Brand claims. read more