The Secrets of the Gardner Museum

(The Courtyard, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum)What do you get when you mix a Venetian palace, priceless artwork, a female patron, and a daring art robbery?  If you answered the Guggenheim Museum in Venice, you’re only partially right, but if you came up with the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, then you’ve hit bull’s-eye! These ingredients make for a thrilling history, maybe even for a movie.  The Gardner Museum is back in the news with a reopening this past January after going through renovations and the addition of a new wing by Italian architect Renzo Piano - see below. The original building is seen at the right corner. 

(New Wing of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum) Modeled after a 15th-century Venetian palazzo, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum has always been considered a jewel among small museums, mainly for its masterpiece collection but also because of its beautiful, intimate and atmospheric space. It was also infamous for a dramatic art heist, still unsolved to this day. If you’re hunting for a Degas or a Vermeer painting, you may still uncover a hidden treasure out there!

(postcard of original Gardner Palazzo)

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A Room with a View: Old Westbury Gardens

(OId Westbury Gardens - South Terrace)A long allée bordered by towering linden trees stretch out from the gates to the entrance of Westbury House, framing its Charles II façade.  Tall imposing iron gates announce that you’re now entering a secluded and spectacular estate known as Old Westbury Gardens located in the very exclusive village of Old Westbury in Long Island. Old Westbury Gardens is so picturesque it’s been chosen for the settings of several movies, including Love Story and Age of Innocence.

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