Please explain in the Sunday Globe... what is the significance of this lady's "reluctant" statement to a Globe reporter... Yes, maybe the FBI questioned her, but this series of grafs (below) seems to show no relevance to Gardner Museum art work, despite the circular trail the Globe tries to lay. The way this tale reads, Mrs. Guarante may have been discussing a porno that titillated her hubby: "Elene Guarente confirmed in an interview Friday that she told Boston-based federal investigators during a trip to her home in 2009 that she saw her husband, the late Robert Guarente, pass a portrait to a man she did not know at the time, who she later learned to be Robert Gentile of Manchester. "She said her husband had only told her of Gentile that "we've been friends for 30 or 40 years.'' "Guarente, 61, said in a reluctant interview Friday that she provided her best recollection of the piece to the federal agents and later to a federal grand jury investigating the theft. She told the Globe that her recollection of the painting did not match any of the paintings and sketches authorities showed her. "'That was the only picture that Bob gave [Gentile] that I know of,' she said. She said she saw the picture only once, in the early 1990s, at her Madison, Maine, home when her husband took it out of a tube he was carrying and showed it to her. She said he never explained how he had come into possession of the painting or what he intended to do with it. "Guarente would not describe the piece of art that she viewed to the Globe."

While attending Boston State College years ago my friends and I often went next door to the Gardner Museum to view the art and in the summer months to be in a cool place. When the robbery occurred I recalled those visits and those paintings. The Mafia, while depicted as rough around the edges, by all accounts, newspaper articles, nonfiction books, film and, of course, "The Sopranos," in this instance do appear to have very, very good taste.

Those paintings were most likely "ordered" by a wealthy customer who has them in his/her private collection. Has anyone checked Mitt Romney's house lately?

Three years ago the FBI was given information the stolen art was in CT? Is it any wonder a search of the house yesterday failed to find any stolen art!