It was the biggest art heist in the history of forever, and Chez Tortoni was an unfortunate casualty. 

In the early hours of March 18, 1990, $500 million worth of art was stolen from the Isabel Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. Thirteen works of art were cut out of their frames and shipped off to who knows where. Chez Tortoni was the only painting taken from the Blue Room during the 81-minute heist.

The painting is not all that big. At 10 x 13 inches, we’d guess the burglars would miss it. Eduoard Manet painted Chez Tortoni sometime in 1875, a couple of years before he passed. The unidentified gentleman in the painting looks right at us. Well, sort of. This is a mid-moment kind of situation. The gentleman was clearly busy doodling or writing. He hasn’t even touched his beer. Now, I see two possibilities. He is either registering that someone is watching him, or, he’s drawing (or writing about) you, and you caught him watching you. We can’t decide to stay out of whatever-the-hell is happening in this painting, we’re either the stalker or the stalked.

The painting is set at Cafe Tortoni in Paris. Unfortunately, it no longer hosts intellectuals of elite Parisian society. It was shut down in 1893. But back in its heyday, the Cafe was frequented by the likes of Renoir, Degas, Baudelaire, Duranty, Maupassant, Proust, and a lot of other cool people. The cafe was started by a guy called Velloni. He wasn’t able to run the cafe quite like his successor, Mr. Guiseppe Tortoni, who really put the cafe on the map. All these fancy people about, interesting conversations at every table, ice cream in the summer and hot chocolate in the winter. You had to be at Tortoni’s if you wanted to get in with the cool crowd.

Manet wandered from cafe to cafe, looking for stuff to paint. In his early days, he was at Tortoni’s, then for a few years at Café Guerbois with painters who would later call themselves Impressionists. They didn’t stay there, of course. Manet was always on the go. His commitment issues would explain a whole lot. It took him ten years to ask his girlfriend to marry him. In the same way, ten years later, Manet and his posse claimed Café Nouvelle Athenes. It didn’t stop him from going back to Tortoni’s once in a while, which was by then mostly a rich people thang.

The painting emits a kind of energy that can only be understood as a super turbulent flashback. It’s hazy, but for an instant, you were there, with the unknown gentleman, at a café that was teeming with the most creative minds in Paris in 1875. Chez Tortoni’s frame hangs empty in the Blue Room. It has been almost three decades since it was stolen. The FBI had a few theories. But, it’s too late now. The burglars can no longer be charged. Though you could still make some money by solving the case. The Isabell Stewart Gardener Museum is offering $10 million to anyone who can help them bring the pieces back. So, if you think you’ve seen this painting, call the museum now!