Boston Blue Season 1: Did The Rose Hawthorne Museum Heist Happen In Real Life?

Contains spoilers for "Boston Blue" Season 1, Episode 5 — "Suffer The Children"

Having ended up in Boston, Danny Reagan (Donnie Wahlberg) usually solves made-up crimes on "Boston Blue" with new partner Lena Silver (Sonequa Martin-Green). But in "Suffer the Children," the show takes advantage of its New England setting (although the "Blue Bloods" spinoff is mostly not actually filmed there) to investigate a fictionalized version of a real-life case that's been bedeviling Beantown since the 1990s. 

In real life, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum was robbed on March 18, 1990, losing 13 works of art to two men posing as police officers, who cut the paintings out of the frames and secreted them away to parts unknown. In the episode, two mystery men commit a similar theft at the fictional Rose Hawthorne Museum. Lena explains to Danny that the precinct often gets false leads regarding the culprits, but they received one recently that might be the real deal. The reporting party winds up dead soon after appearing at the police station. Lena and Danny figure out that their informant, Andy Gosher Jr., was accidentally murdered by his brother, Clayton Gosher (Brian Keane), who wanted to stop him from confessing their late father's involvement in the case. 

It turns out that Andy Gosher Sr. teamed up with his friend Zachary Alberico (Dan Grimaldi) to commit the Hawthorne Museum heist. As in the Stewart Gardner theft, they stole many famous works of art from the collection, removing them from their frames. The thieves went on to live simple, ordinary working-class lives afterwards, and aside from a Monet on Andy Sr.'s wall, the art doesn't resurface.

Trying to figure out who really pulled off the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum caper has become a Boston tradition, like singing "Sweet Caroline" at a Red Sox game. As in the fictional Rose Hawthorne heist, the saddest thing about the real theft is that the art in question has never been found. The spaces on the museum walls where these paintings were once displayed only contain the frames that were left behind by the theft. There are plaques posted nearby to explain the robbery, and why the museum has chosen to leave the gaps bare. Art appreciators can take a virtual tour of the museum and see for themselves the legacy of the crime.

The FBI, in partnership with the museum and U.S. Attorney's office, continues to offer a cash reward for the return of the art or information on the burglars. As of this writing, it has amounted to $10 million, with an additional $100,000 offered up for information leading the museum to the Napoleonic eagle finial that was also swiped in the burglary, along with an ancient bronze beaker (known as a gu) from China. Boston still waits for the return of its treasures, but at least in the fictional world of "Boston Blue," some closure can be offered up.