Wheelchair-bound mobster tied to Gardner heist is jailed |

A wheelchair-bound mobster, who was the final suspect in the Gardner Museum art heist, has been jailed for four and a half years for an unrelated gun charge.

Robert 'Bobby' Gentile, 81, had been in a stand-off with the FBI since he was named as a suspect, in 2010, in the world’s most costly art heist.

Gentile is not believed to be one of the two suspects who stole $500 million of artwork from Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in 1990 but agents believe he had knowledge of where the 13 masterpieces were hidden.

Since 2010, when the elderly mafioso was caught in a couple of police stings, the FBI have been charging him with successive gun and drug crimes, perhaps in the hope the threat of lengthy jail terms would persuade him to tell them the location of the artwork.

Robert Gentile, 81 at federal court in Hartford, Connecticut on Tuesday to face sentencing in an unrelated weapons case

The wheelchair-bound mobster, who was the final suspect in the Gardner Museum art heist, has been jailed for four and a half year

But the technique appears to have failed and on Tuesday.

Gentile was sentenced to four and a half years for drug and gun charges.

With time served, it's likley he'll serve just a year before he is released, the Hartford Courant reports.

Shortly before his sentence, Gentile - who almost died from medical complications in jail - gave an emotional plea for leniency.

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'I wish you could see in your heart to let me go home, so I could be with my wife,' he said.

'My wife, that's all I want, please.'

Gentile's name first arose in connection with the art heist, after the widow of another suspect told the authorities that her late husband Robert 'Unc' Guarente, had given two of the stolen paintings to Gentile before he died in 2004.

Prosecutors argued that Gentile tried to sell the stolen Gardner paintings for $500,000 to an undercover FBI agent posing as a drug dealer in 2014.

Gentile's lawyer refutes that account and the alleged deal fell through before his arrest.

'He doesn't know anything about the whereabouts of the paintings,' said his attorney, A. Ryan McGuigan.

'My goal is to get him home so he can die in his own bed.'

Gentile was initially sentenced to 30 months in prison for gun and drug charges, in 2012.

He was initially cooperative but when he took a polygraph, he failed questions about whether he had knowledge of the heist before it occurred, and if he knew where the artwork was.

A year after his release, he was caught up in another FBI sting.

Gentile has been in custody since that 2015 arrest.

He pleaded guilty to possession of three guns and ammunition and illegal possession of an unregistered silencer.

He had been due to be sentenced in September, but the hearing was postponed over fears about Gentile's mental competency.

The FBI and the museum are now offering a $10 million reward for information leading to the return of the stolen artwork in good condition.

The other security guard, who the Boston Globe identified as Rick Abath, is seen unlocking one of the museum's doors with a buzzer to let in a man who had pulled up in a car outside

The FBI has released the video, calling on the public's help to identify the mystery man who was let into the museum (pictured above).

Mystery man: The man is seen getting out of a car parked in the same location where a group of St Patrick's Day revelers saw two police men parked the night of the heist

The man is seen getting out of a car parked in the same location where a group of St Patrick's Day revelers saw two police men parked the night of the heist

Authorities said that on March 18, 1990, two men dressed in Boston police uniforms, gained entrance to the museum by telling the security guard at the watch desk that they were responding to a report of a disturbance.

Against museum policy, they allowed the men into the museum who then handcuffed the two guards on duty and put them in separate areas of the museum's basement.

The thieves stole 13 masterpieces, including three Rembrandts, and works by Flinck, Manet, and Degas.

Police report that the two men who masqueraded as cops to break into the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum will now never stand trial - because they're already dead.

The investigation focus is now on returning the precious artworks

Anthony Amore, the museum's security director, said: 'This continues to be an active and ongoing investigation. Mr. Gentile is but one piece of the puzzle.

On March 18, 1990, two thieves disguised as Boston police officers talked their way into the museum at 1:20am, telling the security guard at the watch desk that they were responding to a report of a disturbance

The FBI revealed that the two men who broke into the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in 1990 have since died.

'The focus of the investigation for many years was: Who did this heist? And we have through the great investigative work identified who did this heist, and both those individuals are deceased,' Peter Kowenhoven, the FBI's assistant special agent in charge in Boston, said.

'So now the focus of the investigation is the recovery of the art.'

Authorities have released grainy surveillance video from the eve of the heist and appealed anew to the public for help in finding the artworks.

The low-resolution video - captured by museum security cameras - shows a security guard, identified by the Boston Globe as night watchman Rick Abath, appearing to hit an intercom button, then to grant access to a man who can be seen in the museum's reception area at about 12:49am on March 17, 1990, almost exactly 24 hours before the heist.

The man is also seen getting out of a car matching the general description of one reported to be parked outside the museum minutes before the theft.

'Every lead, every tip, everything that comes in we're tracking down, no matter where it is in the area, in the country or overseas,' Kowenhoven said.

'These are cultural masterpieces that we are trying to recover.'

Surveillance footage appears to show a suspicion leveled at Abath, who is seen letting the mystery man into the museum in the night before.

Authorities said that on March 18, 1990, two men dressed in Boston police uniforms, gained entrance to Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (pictured)

Security guard Abath (above) was a center of suspicion 25 years ago, since he broke protocol by letting the intruders in. He has repeatedly denied the allegations that he had anything to do with the plot

Abath, the security guard who allegedly opened the door the night before and of the heist, is now 49, and living in Vermont, according to public records

While the FBI didn't name any of the people in the video, the Boston Globe reports that the security guard who let the mystery man the night before the heist was Abath, a rock musician who was moonlighting as a security guard at the museum at the time.

Abath was a center of suspicion 25 years ago, since he broke protocol by letting the intruders in. He has repeatedly denied the allegations that he had anything to do with the plot.

The museum had a strict policy that stated security guards could not open the doors for anyone, including cops and firemen, without first getting permission from a supervisor.

The night of the robbery, Abath admitted to opening the doors, saying he was under the impression that it was his duty to check the security of the doors - something that higher-ups at the museum contested.

In the latest video, he is seen opening the doors yet again, shortly after the other security guard on duty appears to leave to go on his rounds.

More importantly, Abath never told investigators about letting anyone in the night before the heist.

It's unclear whether Abath has since been questioned by police about the incident.

After the heist, Abath went on to lead a quiet life, most recently working as a teacher's aide.

He is now in his late 40s and living in a Vermont.

A woman at an address registered to him said he did not live there when Boston Globe reporters went knocking on Thursday.

It's not immediately clear why the surveillance video had not been released before.

Lyle Grindle, who was head of security for the museum at the time, said the FBI took the tapes right after the heist and he never saw them again.

'Someone has to explain why the security protocol was broken two nights in a row now, and I think only Rick can answer that question now,' Grindle told the Boston Globe.

Missing piece: In this March 11, 2010 file photo, the empty frame, center, from which thieves cut Rembrandt's 'Storm on the Sea of Galilee' remains on display at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston

In this March 21, 1990 file photo, a security guard stands outside the Dutch Room of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, where robbers stole more than a dozen works of art by Rembrandt, Vermeer, Degas, Manet and others, in an early morning robbery March 18, 1990

Authorities admitted that they had not analysed the tapes until 2015.

No tapes of the actual night of the heist exist, as the robbers took the footage with them.

In all the years that the fine works of art have been stolen, none of have surfaced in any legal art dealing channels.

Even if the suspects were still alive, it would be be too late to charge them with theft since the statue of limitations has expired.

However, authorities may still prosecute for possession of the stolen works.

U.S. Attorney Carmen M Ortiz said she is considering offering immunity to anyone who possesses the paintings in order to secure their return to the museum.

The FBI has taken a renewed interest in the heist in recent years.

In 2013, authorities announced that they believed they knew who took the art, saying the paintings made their way through underground organized crime channels from Boston to Connecticut and on to Philadelphia where they were last believed to be seen.

THE PRECIOUS ARTWORKS STOLEN FROM IN THE 1990 GARDNER MUSEUM HEIST

None of the 13 artworks that were stolen from the Isabella Steward Gardner Museum in 1990 have been surfaced to this day. It's estimated that they are worth at least $500million, and there has been a standing reward of $5million for information leading to their return.

Two years ago, authorities announced that they knew the paintings were taken to Connecticut after their disappearance and on to Philadelphia where they were last seen.

Since the thieves involved are dead, the FBI is now focusing on finding the missing artworks and returning them to the museum.

U.S. Attorney Carmen M Ortiz has said she could consider offering immunity to anyone who possesses the pieces, in order to secure their return to the museum.

Below, the 13 works of art that are still missing.

Vermeer's 'The Concert'