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Veteran criminal Martin ‘The Viper’ Foley has disappeared from negotiations to find the whereabouts of a series of valuable masterpieces stolen from a Boston art gallery in a $ 1 billion raid 30 years ago, according to a British detective.
The works of artists such as Vermeer, Rembrandt, Degas and Manet, were stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner museum.
The culprits were two men dressed as policemen, who handcuffed the guards at dawn on March 18, 1990.
The museum offers a $ 10 million reward for information leading to the recovery of the paintings.
British detective Charles Hill, a former head of the Metropolitan Police’s art and antiquities squad that recovered Edvard Munch’s The Scream in 1994, believes there is an Irish link to the crime.
But according to The Guardian, Foley, who is a longtime associate of Russborough House art thief Martin ‘The General’ Cahill, has gone missing while promising to help reunite the public with the stolen works.
It is believed that Foley guided Hill towards a possible deal with the surviving members of a gang who, according to him, took the art.
The claims are made in a new BBC4 documentary called The Hunt for Trillion Dollar Art it will air next week.
However, after the publicity about the negotiations surfaced, Foley (66) “fell out of sight.”
It is understood that he is hiding behind a warning from the gardaí of a threat to his life.
In February, Foley came to the end of the road in his quest to avoid paying a € 740,000 tax bill after losing a Supreme Court appeal against the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB).
‘The Viper’ had previously tried to have the matter related to an income tax bill from the 1990s overturned by the Court of Appeal, which ruled against it last November. Foley then filed an appeal with the Supreme Court that ruled in favor of the CAB.
In his initial defense against the tax bill, Foley claimed he had been “caught off guard” and left in “a near impossible situation,” saying the CAB had not explained why it took him 11 years to file the bill. request for judgment.
Foley is one of Ireland’s most notorious criminals, having survived four attacks in his life in which he suffered around 14 gunshot wounds.
He later established a debt recovery business called Viper Debt Recovery And Repossession Services Limited, offering his services in debt collection for clients.
You have to pay a cabin tax and interest, which has increased the total bill to more than 738,000 euros for the years 1993/94 and 1999/2000.
‘The Viper’ received a tax invoice of 218,000 euros for the years 1993-94 and 1999-2000.
Made payments totaling € 40,000, reducing the invoice to € 178,000. In February 2002, he filed an appeal against the evaluation, which was rejected.
However, the bill skyrocketed due to interest and penalties on the unpaid sum for more than 11 years.
The Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court have ruled that he “had no case” and dismissed his appeals.
The billion dollar art theft It will be broadcast on BBC 4 on Monday, October 19 at 9:00 p.m.
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