HARTFORD, Conn., May 9 (UPI) -- Robert Gentile, who federal authorities suspect in a 1999 Boston art theft, received a 30-month sentence on gun and drugs charges in Hartford, Conn., Thursday.
U.S. District Judge Robert N. Chatigny sentenced Gentile, 76, in two criminal cases involving possession and distribution of prescription pain killers and illegal possession of a weapon, the Hartford Courant reported.
With credit for time in prison since his February 2012 arrest, and consideration of good behavior in prison, Chatigny estimated Gentile could be released within 10 months. Chatigny also ordered three years of probation after Gentile's release, and ordered Gentile to serve the first three months of his sentence in home confinement.
Federal prosecutors argued Gentile, whose arrest record dates back to the 1950s, should have received a minimum sentence of 46 to 57 months.
FBI agents have been pressing Gentile in the belief he has information concerning 13 paintings stolen from Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum on March 18, 1999, regarded by many in the art world as history's most expensive and notorious stolen art case, the newspaper said, noting Gentile has denied any knowledge or involvement in the theft.
