Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum is a private museum in Boston’s Fenway neighborhood founded by collector Isabella Stewart Gardner and opened in 1903. The building is modeled on a Venetian palazzo and is organized around an enclosed central courtyard garden.

Galleries display the founder’s collection of European, Asian and American fine and decorative arts in an arrangement the founder specified. The central courtyard is planted year-round and is a defining visual element around which the rooms are hung.

Isabella Stewart Gardner assembled the collection and built the museum to display it as a single, curated installation; her will established conditions to preserve the arrangement after her death. In March 1990 the museum suffered a major theft when 13 works were stolen and have not been recovered.

The museum is located in the Fenway-Kenmore neighborhood of Boston, adjacent to cultural institutions and a short walk from Fenway Park.

• Founder's stipulation and opening year: Opened to the public in 1903 according to the founder's will, which included strict conditions that the collection and its arrangement remain unchanged unless her trustees agree to a replacement.
• 1990 theft: Scene of the March 1990 theft in which 13 works of art were stolen; the works remain missing and the theft is one of the largest unsolved art heists in history.

What to See #

• Courtyard garden: A central enclosed courtyard garden planted and maintained year-round, arranged as Isabella Gardner instructed and surrounded by the museum's gallery rooms.
• Venetian palace and gallery rooms: The museum building is a Venetian-style palazzo completed for Isabella Stewart Gardner and designed to display her collection in a domestic setting; the layout remains largely as she arranged it at opening.
• European paintings and decorative arts: Houses the museum's European paintings collection alongside decorative arts and Asian objects arranged in intimate galleries recreating the founder's installation.