Eze. (Courtesy the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum)

Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum has tapped Anne-Marie Eze to become its associate curator of the collection. Ms. Eze has been with the museum since 2010, and served as its first Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Curatorial Fellow. The news comes to us via Artforum.

More from the museum's release:

During her time at the museum, Ms. Eze has researched and raised the profile of the museum’s manuscripts and rare books collection through her exhibition "Illuminating the Serenissima: Books of the Republic of Venice (2011), scholarly publications and public programs.

In a statement Ms. Eze said, "The Gardner Museum is a very exciting place to be right now, so I am delighted to continue working here in a new capacity.” That is for sure. They have a huge Adam Pendleton work on the building's facade, and authorities have reportedly redoubled their efforts to track down those responsible for the theft of 13 of its paintings in 1990.

Rembrandt's "The Storm on the Sea of Galilee," one of the works stolen from the Gardner Museum.

Federal officials involved in investigating the 1990 Gardner Museum heist--considered to be the largest museum theft in history--have plans to intensify their search for the missing work, which is valued at $500 million. Two houses, with loose ties to the late mob boss Robert Guarente, have been searched in the last eight months, according to the Boston Globe.

The Globe reports:

Officials are still finalizing plans for the public awareness campaign, but say it could go international and could, like the [James “Whitey’’] Bulger campaign, use billboards and television advertisements.

The campaign would reintroduce the public to the 13 stolen masterworks - including works by Rembrandt, Vermeer, Degas, and Manet - and try to solicit information concerning their whereabouts, officials said.

Investigators are also offering the possibility of immunity from criminal prosecution to anyone with information about the crime. The museum has offered a $5 million reward for the return of the paintings in good condition.

There are a lot more details to this story, so have a look here.

Vermeer's ca. 1664 "The Concert." (Courtesy Gardner Museum)

A swarm of FBI agents descended today on the Manchester, Conn., home of mobster Robert Gentile, whom some believe may have information connected to the 1990 robbery of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, The Washington Post reports. While the FBI says it is searching for weapons (the agency has a new warrant that allows for the use of "ground-penetrating radar"), Mr. Gentile's attorney, Ryan McGuigan, asserts that officers are there to search for paintings stolen in the heist, including pieces by Rembrandt, Vermeer and Degas that are said to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

The article continues as follows:

“This is nonsense,” McGuigan said. “This is the FBI. Are you trying to tell me they missed something the first time? They’re trying to find $500 million of stolen artwork. ... All they’re going to find is night crawlers.”

A federal prosecutor said in March the FBI believes Gentile had some involvement with stolen property related to the 1990 heist at Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Thieves disguised as police officers struck as Boston finished celebrating St. Patrick’s Day, binding two guards before stealing masterworks by Rembrandt, Vermeer, Degas and Manet worth more than a half-billion dollars.

Thank you to Blouin Artinfo's In the Air blog for bringing this to our attention.