The Art League Book Club January 2025

With her bold personality and vibrant social life, Isabella Stewart Gardner made her mark as an art collector, patron, and founder of her eponymous museum in Boston that, in 1990, was the site of one of the largest art heists in history. Gardner’s storied life, and that incredible theft, are the topics of January's book club meeting.

First we'll discuss Gardner's life as detailed in by Natalie Dykstra, an extraordinary work of storytelling and scholarship that reveals how the socialite’s legendary museum serves as a unique kind of memoir—crafted not with words, but with art and artifacts. Then we’ll delve into the famed heist from by Stephen Kurkjian. In it, investigative reporter Kurkjian sheds new light on some of the Gardner's most abiding mysteries.

Also, check out , a true-crime podcast about the Gardener heist.

Host or Publisher The Art League