OLD ORCHARD BEACH — At the start of April, a contingent of Old Orchard Beach High School students took a trip to Boston to view treasured pieces of art.
The students encountered a number of schedule-related problems from a late bus, but they all said they enjoyed the trip nevertheless.
Students saw many renowned paintings and artwork from artists such as Rembrandt and Frida Kahlo during a visit to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. While there they also observed a few empty pictures frames showing spots reserved for stolen artwork museum officials hope to be returned some 29 years after they were stolen.
In March 1990, two thieves disguised as police officers robbed the museum of 13 works worth more than $500 million, amounting to the largest art theft in history. Among the works that thieves made off with are The Concert (1664), one of only 34 known by Vermeer and worth more than $200 million alone, and the The Storm on the Sea of Galilee (1633), Rembrandt‘s only known seascape painting.
To this very day these stolen artworks have not yet been recovered by the museum.
“The trip was really fun and exciting,” said Emily Haines, Old Orchard Beach High School art teacher. “But the train arrived a bit late and some of the students haven’t been to Boston before.”
The students also were able to visit the Boston Museum of Fine Art before returning to Maine.
Old Orchard Beach High junior Kay Petit said the trip was enlightening.
“The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum had a beautiful garden and the exhibits were really interesting,” Petit said. “But there were a lot of time constraints so the tours were kind of rushed.”
Haines said that students particularly enjoyed the Frida Kahlo exhibit at the Museum of Fine Art.
She said the exhibit contained some very interesting still life paintings and articles of clothing that the artist was known to wear as well.
The students thought it was interesting as well, with Petit describing it as something she’s never seen before.
According to Petit, all of the students seemed to enjoy themselves and some have even begun to plan to return to the museums in the future.
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