FILE - This undated file photograph released by the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum shows the painting "Chez Tortoni," by Manet, one of more than a dozen works of art stolen in the early hours of March 18, 1990. The FBI said Monday, March 18, 2013, it believes they know the identities of the thieves, belonging to a criminal organization based in New England the mid-Atlantic states. (AP Photo/Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, File) NO SALES
FILE - This undated file photograph released by the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum shows the painting "Chez Tortoni," by Manet, one of more than a dozen works of art stolen in the early hours of March 18, 1990. The FBI said Monday, March 18, 2013, it believes they know the identities of the thieves, belonging to a criminal organization based in New England the mid-Atlantic states. (AP Photo/Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, File) NO SALES
FILE - This undated file photograph released by the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum shows the etching "Self-Portrait," by Rembrandt, one of more than a dozen works of art stolen by burglars in the early hours of March 18, 1990.The FBI said Monday, March 18, 2013, it believes it knows the identities of the thieves who stole the art. Richard DesLauriers, the FBI's special agent in charge in Boston, says the thieves belong to a criminal organization based in New England the mid-Atlantic states. (AP Photo/Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, File) NO SALES
Anthony Amore, chief of security at the Gardner Museum, center, stands next to a poster that shows an image of a Vermeer painting and lists a reward, right, while facing reporters during a news conference at FBI headquarters in Boston, Monday, March 18, 2013. The FBI believes it knows the identities of the thieves who stole art valued at up to $500 million from Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum more than two decades ago. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Special Agent Geoff Kelly, center, looks in the direction of a poster that shows a Vermeer painting and lists a reward, right, after taking questions from reporters during a news conference at FBI headquarters in Boston, Monday, March 18, 2013. The FBI believes it knows the identities of the thieves who stole art valued at up to $500 million from Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum more than two decades ago. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
FILE - This undated file photograph released by the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum shows the painting "The Storm on the Sea of Galilee," by Rembrandt, one of more than a dozen works of art stolen by burglars in the early hours of March 18, 1990. The FBI said Monday, March 18, 2013, it believes it knows the identities of the thieves who stole the art. Richard DesLauriers, the FBI's special agent in charge in Boston, says the thieves belong to a criminal organization based in New England the mid-Atlantic states. (AP Photo/Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, File) NO SALES
BOSTON (AP) ? Now that authorities believe they know who stole $500 million worth of art from Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in the largest art heist in U.S. history, what are the chances they'll actually recover the stolen works by Rembrandt, Vermeer and Manet after 23 years?
Surprisingly good, art recovery experts say.
Christopher Marinello, general counsel for The Art Loss Register, a London-based organization that keeps a database of stolen and missing artwork, recently recovered a Matisse oil painting stolen from a Stockholm museum in 1987.
"A quarter of a century is not that unusual for stolen paintings to be returned," Marinello said. "Eventually they will resurface. Somebody will rat somebody else out. It's really only a matter of time."
The FBI announced Monday that it knows but is not disclosing the identities of two men who posed as police officers and stole 13 works of art from the museum in 1990. The theft remains the largest art heist in U.S. history.
Bob Wittman, a retired FBI agent from Philadelphia who specialized in art crimes, said he helped recover a set of seven Norman Rockwell paintings stolen from a Minneapolis museum in 1977. The paintings were found in Rio de Janeiro in 2001. Wittman said he also helped recover an original copy of the Bill of Rights that had been stolen more than 130 years earlier.
"I think that the chances are that if they still exist, there's a 95 percent chance they are going to get the paintings back," Wittman said.
"At some point, they are going to come back to market. Whoever is holding them illicitly is going to get old. An heir or a child is going to find it and try to sell it."
The FBI, which made its announcement on the 23rd anniversary of the heist, also launched a new publicity campaign aimed at generating tips on the whereabouts of the artwork, including a dedicated FBI website on the heist, video postings on FBI social media sites and digital billboards in Connecticut and Philadelphia. They also re-emphasized a $5 million reward being offered by the museum for information leading to the return of the artwork.
Damon Katz, a spokesman for the FBI's Boston office, said tips were already coming in Tuesday. He would not say how many.
"We are analyzing them and we will act on those as appropriate," he said. "The goal is not to generate the largest number of tips, but to generate the best tips that will lead us to the art."
Richard DesLauriers, an FBI agent in Boston, said investigators believe the thieves belonged to a criminal organization based in New England and the mid-Atlantic states. They believe the art was taken to Connecticut and the Philadelphia region in the years after the theft and offered for sale in Philadelphia a decade ago. After that, the FBI does not know what happened to the artwork, DeLauriers said.
Empty frames still hang on the walls of the museum as a reminder of the loss of precious works of art, including "The Concert" by Johannes Vermeer and several Rembrandts, "A Lady and Gentleman in Black" and "Storm on the Sea of Galilee," his only seascape.
The statute of limitations has expired on crimes associated with the actual theft. But prosecutors say anyone who knowingly possesses or conceals the stolen art could still face charges.
Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2013-03-19-US-Art-Heist-Mystery/id-24dc16f9d75946ad8976ed0c8f6f5d70
Monsters University nfl playoff schedule Rex Ryan tattoo Alaska earthquake green bay packers nfl schedule houston texans
The March 29 ShopAndroid.com Deal of the Day is the SPE Leather Slider Case for Samsung Galaxy Note and Note 2. This case is made of genuine leather and is designed specifically for your device to offer top-notch comfort, quality, and ease of use. Slide into this flexible leather case from the side and protect against drops while the interior features a soft padding which keeps your screen safe from scratches. Comes in black, brown and white.
![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
Public release date: 29-Mar-2013
Share ] 
For years now, Google has offered its Google Maps Engine to enterprises that want to visualize their custom geospacial data. Starting today, anybody will be able to use a subset of this functionality, thanks to the launch of Google Maps Engine Lite?(beta). This new tool, Google says, will allow any mapping enthusiast?to “create and share robust custom maps using this powerful, easy-to-use tool.” Maps Engine Lite allows users to upload small spreadsheets with locations and visualize them on a map. They can also compare up to three different data sets for, the company stresses, non-businesses purposes. These custom maps can have multiple layers, and users who don’t have spreadsheets to upload can also manually draw lines, mark specific areas and set place markers. Google offers a total of nine base maps, including its usual satellite and terrain maps, as well as styles that emphasize city boundaries, political boundaries and highways. Maps Engine Lite also offers about 150 different icons that can be used to mark specific places. To help new users get started, Google also published a tutorial that offers a few sample data sets and a step-by-step guide to publishing a custom map. Google says it will still offer My Maps, its earlier custom mapping tool, for the time being and My Maps users can import their maps into the new Maps Engine Lite. Over time, however, Google product manager Beth Liebert writes in today’s announcement, My Maps will be “incorporated into Google Maps Engine Lite.” For now, Google is officially labeling Maps Engine Lite as a beta, and it’ll only be available in English for the time being.
From an economic perspective, the 
THE SPORTS DESK