The file on one of the art world’s great unsolved mysteries just got a whole lot thicker. In his new book, The Gardner Heist (HarperCollins), Ulrich Boser, a U.S. News & World Report contributing editor, reveals the identity of the man he believes was behind the 1990 theft of a dozen masterpieces by such names as Degas, Rembrandt and Vermeer from Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. The alleged culprit: the decidedly un-Thomas Crown-like David Turner, a Boston gangster currently serving time for an unrelated armed robbery. Is all hope lost for the works’ recovery? Boser doesn’t think so. Since Turner ain’t talking, the author has set up a toll-free hotline (1-888-292-9380) for anyone with information on the crime. Although the book doesn’t come out until next month, Boser has been fielding calls almost every day. "Most of them don’t pan out," he says. "Lots of people are just interested in the $5 million dollar reward."

"Working for Tips" originally appeared in the January 2009 issue of Art+Auction. For a complete list of articles from this issue available on ARTINFO, see Art+Auction's January 2009 Table of Contents.