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Gardner Museum Offers New $100,000 Reward For Item Stolen During Infamous Heist

The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum is offering a new $100,000 reward for information leading to the return of one of the 13 items stolen during the notorious 1990 heist.

In a release Tuesday, the museum said it hopes the reward will help it recover the Napoleonic finial — one of the least recognizable of 13 works stolen by thieves posing as police officers on March 18, 1990.

Gardner Museum experts say the item should be easy to identify. The 10-inch gilded bronze eagle originally was affixed to a flagpole of Napoleon's Imperial Guard and dates to 1813-14.

Because the finial is not well known to the public, Anthony Amore, the museum security director, told WBUR, "We believe the possibility exists that someone might have it [and] might not realize how important it is or that it's one of the stolen Gardner items."

The reward, the museum said, exceeds the market value of the finial, and is separate from an additional $5 million offered for the filial and paintings by Edouard Manet, Edgar Degas and Johannes Vermeer.

Anyone with information should contact museum security director Anthony Amore at (617) 278-5114 or theft@gardnermuseum.org.

With reporting by The Associated Press and the WBUR Newsroom

This article was originally published on May 12, 2015.

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