Gardner
Museum
-
Britannica
School
The
museum
was
the
capstone
of
Isabella
Stewart
Gardner
?
s
decades
of
collecting
from
her
travels
with
her
husband
,
John
(
"
Jack
"
)
Gardner
.
The
two
toured
extensively
throughout
,
the
Middle
East
,
and
Asia
,
amassing
a
of
more
than
2
,
500
objects
spanning
from
antiquity
to
the
1920s
.
Many
of
the
works
,
notably
those
by
the
Italian
and
Dutch
masters
,
were
acquired
by
the
famed
connoisseur
Bernard
Berenson
.
The
Gardners
planned
to
open
a
museum
for
their
holdings
,
and
,
after
her
husband
?
s
death
in
1898
,
Isabella
Stewart
Gardner
went
ahead
with
the
of
Fenway
Court
,
as
the
museum
?
s
original
building
was
initially
called
,
the
following
year
.
She
took
an
active
part
in
its
design
and
construction
.
Once
the
building
was
completed
in
1901
,
Gardner
spent
a
year
carefully
her
collection
amid
the
floors
of
intimate
gallery
spaces
.
Although
many
of
the
rooms
focused
on
a
particular
school
of
painting
,
she
combined
different
media
from
varying
locales
and
periods
hoping
to
invoke
a
love
for
art
and
not
to
teach
its
.
The
Isabella
Stewart
Gardner
Museum
(
commonly
called
the
Museum
)
was
opened
to
the
public
in
1903
,
and
she
hosted
concerts
and
gatherings
there
throughout
the
early
20th
century
,
including
performances
by
the
popular
operatic
singer
Nellie
Melba
and
the
contemporary
dancer
Ruth
St
.
Denis
.
Gardner
continued
to
live
in
a
private
on
the
fourth
floor
until
her
death
in
1924
.
In
accordance
with
Gardner
?
s
,
the
Gardner
Museum
was
given
to
as
a
public
institution
with
the
provision
that
the
collection
be
maintained
precisely
as
she
had
arranged
it
;
nothing
was
to
be
,
removed
,
or
rearranged
.
The
collection
was
altered
,
however
,
on
March
18
,
,
by
a
major
art
that
stripped
the
museum
of
valuable
works
,
including
those
by
Johannes
Vermeer
,
Édouard
Manet
,
and
van
Rijn
.
The
theft
,
undertaken
by
two
burglars
dressed
as
Boston
police
,
was
examined
in
the
documentary
Stolen
(
2005
)
.
The
paintings
were
recovered
,
but
most
of
their
remain
in
their
original
places
on
the
walls
in
the
hope
that
the
art
will
one
day
.
New game