Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and Venetian Courtyard

The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum was designed to evoke a 15th-century Venetian palazzo and features a central indoor courtyard garden surrounded by galleries. The museum opened in its current building in 1903 and preserves the founder's original arrangement of paintings, sculpture, and decorative arts. On March 18, 1990, the museum was the site of a still-unsolved theft in which 13 works of art were stolen, making it one of the largest art heists in U.S. history. The museum maintains the empty frames and public information about the theft as part of its collection history.