Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

Courtyard
Location within Boston
Former name	Fenway Court
Established	1903; 121 years ago (1903)
Location	25 Evans Way Boston, MA 02115
Coordinates	42°20′19″N 71°5′56″W / 42.33861°N 71.09889°W / 42.33861; -71.09889
Type	Art museum
Accreditation	American Alliance of Museums
Founder	Isabella Stewart Gardner
Director	Peggy Fogelman
Public transit access	Green Line  (E branch) Museum of Fine Arts
Website	gardnermuseum.org
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Gardner Museum in 2012, original building at right
Built	1896–1903
Architect	Willard T. Sears[1]
NRHP reference No.	83000603[1]
Added to NRHP	January 27, 1983

The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts, which houses significant examples of European, Asian, and American art. Its collection includes paintings, sculpture, tapestries, and decorative arts. It was founded by Isabella Stewart Gardner, whose will called for her art collection to be permanently exhibited "for the education and enjoyment of the public forever."

The museum opened in 1903. An auxiliary wing designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano, adjacent to the original structure near the Back Bay Fens, was completed in 2012.^[2][3]

In 1990, thirteen of the museum's works were stolen; the crime remains unsolved, and the works, valued at an estimated $500 million, have not been recovered.