Police: Missing Boston Library Artwork May Be Inside Job

The Boston Public Library's keeper of special collections has been placed on leave, as city police, with the assistance of the FBI, continue to investigate the disappearance of two pieces of artwork that are together worth more than half a million dollars.

It's still not clear whether the works by Rembrandt and Albrecht Dürer were stolen or were misplaced. The library president said Wednesday she hopes the "two significant pieces have simply been misfiled."

Police Commissioner William Evans says investigators are looking into whether the disappearance of the pieces was "an inside job" and are looking at several library employees. He did not disclose names.

The missing pieces are a 1634 Rembrandt etching and the 1504 Dürer engraving. The Dürer was discovered missing on April 8 and may have been missing “for the last several months,” a library spokeswoman detailed in a statement Wednesday.

An official police report was filed on April 29.

The 8-by-11-inch Dürer, "Adam and Eve," is valued at about $600,000. The 5-by-6-inch Rembrandt self-portrait is valued between $20,000 and $30,000.

The Print Department’s collections are stored in alarmed areas of the BPL’s central branch in Copley Square.

With reporting by The Associated Press and the WBUR Newsroom