For my next project I want to visualize the biggest art heist in history - the Boston Gardner Museum Heist. That's why I did some research whether some info graphics do already exist. I found two focussing on different aspects. One is dealing with the event of the robbery and the other one with the police investigation.
The first one is telling the story of the robbery in chronological order. It is a very detailed figurative image of the museum's building showing the steps and the action in a timeline below. Some call-outs give more detailed information about the several steps. The graphic combines all the important aspects (time, location, action) making it very multidimensional. Color-coding refers clearly from the rooms to the timeline making it easy to read the graphic.
The second one tells the story after the robbery showing the relations of the suspects and the work of the police. Many images are used to illustrate the background of the art heist. The stolen artworks are shown and Isabella Stewart Gardner is introduced. Furthermore a picture of the museum serves as illustration of the crime scene. I think not all of these images are functional. That's why I consider a combination of the artworks with a floor plan (like in the first example) of the museum as a useful solution - because it would additionally show where the artworks were taken. This connection would make the graphic more structured. Since all the different aspects are delivered separately without any relation. There are no visual cues that give the viewer orientation. Without a guideline it is difficult to read the graphic. In my opinion there is too much text making it much more complex. Maybe it is better to mainly focus on only one aspect arranging the background information secondarily.
The next one does not explicitly deal with the Boston Heist, but shows it as one aspect. I really like the visualization, that is why I chose it as an example. The info graphic is divided in three segments vertically showing the biggest diamond, bank and art heist. Also the horizontal is structured in three aspects. The color concept makes it easy to understand the structure. Furthermore the map is a useful element for giving the location and date. This one focuses only on the facts for comparison and needs no further visual background information.
Hi! My name is Emma, I'm writing a play about Isabella Stewart Gardner. This is super crazy, but do you have any of the sources that you used to create these infographics? I know you made this literally 7 years ago, so no worries! And also, would it be okay if I potentially used the first graphic in the play? Sorry if this is weird, there's just facts about the robbery on here that I've never seen before and am super interested!
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