The gangster vanishes: twist in hunt for world’s largest haul of stolen art

Irish criminal disappears after leading BBC film crew to gang behind infamous Boston heist

Some of the most precious paintings in the world, a billion-dollar haul including work by Vermeer, Rembrandt, Degas and Manet, were stolen from a gallery in Boston, Massachusetts, in an audacious heist 30 years ago. But now, just as a British detective closes in on what he believes are the best clues so far to the masterpieces' hiding place, his key contact, an Irish gangster, has disappeared.

Martin the Viper" Foley, a well-known convicted criminal who has operated on the fringes of gangland political violence in Ireland for half a century, has suddenly dropped out of negotiations, according to Charles Hill, a leading art sleuth. And Foley's promise to reunite the public with these great works, including Vermeer's The Concert, the most valuable missing artwork in the world, has vanished with him.