Man linked to art heist found competent, sentencing set

HARTFORD, Conn. – A reputed mobster who authorities believe is the last surviving person of interest in the largest art heist in history has been found competent to proceed to sentencing in an unrelated weapons case.

Eighty-one-year-old Robert Gentile is now scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 27 in federal court in Hartford, Connecticut.

Prosecutors have said they believe the Manchester resident has information about the still-unsolved 1990 heist at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. Thieves stole an estimated $500 million worth of artwork, including works by Rembrandt and Johannes Vermeer.

Gentile’s lawyer, A. Ryan McGuigan, said Tuesday that Gentile was found competent during a recent psychiatric exam. The review was ordered because Gentile said at his sentencing hearing that he could not remember having pleaded guilty.