Ryan McGuigan

Ryan McGuigan defended Bobby Gentile, a criminal with mafia ties who was believed to have knowledge on the Gardner heist. It was said that Gentile received the Gardner artwork from Bobby Guarente in a Maine parking lot back in 2002. But without any proof, the FBI could only pressure him into sharing what he knew about the art.

McGuigan doesn’t believe Gentile knows anything about the art. In 2016, McGuigan got a call from a prison hospital — Gentile was on his deathbed. He flew from Connecticut to be by Gentile’s side. Gentile asked McGuigan not to let him die there. McGuigan urged his client to reveal what he knew about the Gardner art so that he could get him on a plane back to Hartford, to die in his own bed, by his wife’s side. With tears streaming down his face, Gentile told McGuigan, “There ain’t no paintings.” He survived the health scare, and McGuigan maintains that if Gentile knew anything about the Gardner’s stolen masterpieces, he would have said so when he had every reason to believe he was about to die.