Art museums

Four teen girls visited a museum for class. They witnessed a $2 million art heist instead.

“Once you’ve been through an art museum robbery, it cements your friendship for life"

Telegram & Gazette

WORCESTER, Mass. – A group of teenagers on an assignment from their art teacher made their way to the Worcester Art Museum in Massachusetts soon after school let out.

It was May 17, 1972. The Doherty Memorial High School juniors – Beth Ellen T. Hurowitz, 16; Kathy Kartiganer, 17; Beth Dara Silver, 16 – were researching an essay on one of the paintings. A friend, Geri Wolfson, 17, went along.

The events of that day yielded headlines and a lifelong connection between the students.

Geri Wolfson Fuhrmann on the stairs above the 1,700-year-old mosaic at the Worcester Art Museum. A half-century ago, she was at the museum with friends. So, too, were thieves.

“Once you’ve been through an art museum robbery, it cements your friendship for life,” Silver recently recounted.

A half-hour before closing, Wolfson and Silver were impatiently waiting outside in a bright-yellow Buick Skylark convertible, while Kartiganer and Hurowitz were still in the museum.