U.S. News

Mobster linked to Boston art heist sentenced to 54 months in prison

By Danielle Haynes   |   Feb. 27, 2018 at 7:58 PM

Feb. 27 (UPI) -- A federal judge sentenced Robert "Bobby the Cook" Gentile, whom the FBI believes could be linked to a 1990 Boston art heist, to 54 months in prison on gun charges Tuesday.

U.S. District Judge Robert Chatigny's sentence means Gentile, 81, likely will serve about 11 months in jail after factoring in 35 months of time served awaiting trial and credit for good behavior.

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In a separate case, Gentile is believed to have intimate knowledge of the unsolved 1990 theft of 13 paintings from Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. The paintings, including artworks by Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn, Edgar Degas and Johannes Vermeer, have a value of $500 million.

Gentile, who has links to a Boston mafia group, has spent five of the past six years in prison on drug and guns charges. During that time, the FBI has pressed him for information about the museum heist.

Gentile denies any knowledge of the theft.

He pleaded guilty in 2017 to being a felon in possession of firearms, ammunition and an illegal silencer.