According to New York police officials, an art therapist at Long Island’s Brinkvale Psychiatric Hospital helped solve an infamous art heist that had stymied investigators for three decades.

In a statement issued Friday evening by Homicide Division Deputy Chief Eustacio Jean-Phillipe, the case famously known as “The Bloodsword Swindle” by local newspapers is now nearly closed. Brinkvale employee Zachary Taylor presented evidence and an “anecdotal confession” from the crime’s mastermind to police officials on Friday morning. Detectives with cold case expertise confirmed the information that afternoon, Jean-Phillipe said.

“This is a remarkable story of a young man who saw something no one else could,” Jean-Phillipe said in the statement. “He found meaning in strings, patterns and patches. It was an uncanny discovery.”

While Zachary Taylor declined to comment for this story, the NYPD’s statement revealed how the 25-year-old therapist unraveled an intriguing tale of thievery, double-crosses, and murder, all told through several patchwork quilts created by a 75-year-old Brinkvale patient.

The story concludes a 30-year mystery, providing closure to the most famous art heist in the city’s history. According to the police, the crime’s secrets were locked in the mind of Gertrude Spindler, a seemingly “cheerful,” if mentally ill, elderly woman. Spindler has been institutionalized at Brinkvale since 1996, after fatally poisoning her husband.

Lifelong New York residents may recall “The Bloodsword Swindle”: In 1978, the American Museum of Natural History hosted the lone American exhibition of the famous Chinese “Bloodsword,” so nicknamed for its death-dealing history and legendary “mystical” powers. The straight-bladed jian sword, a priceless artifact more than 2,000 years old, was discovered during the same 1965 dig which revealed the equally-famous Sword of Goujian in Heubi, China.

The museum received the sword with great fanfare in February of that year, using the popularity the film “Star Wars” in its advertising: “These real battles happened a long time ago, but in a country not too far away...”. The day prior to the exhibit’s debut, the Bloodsword -- and museum curator Reginald Willis -- vanished.

An international sword- and manhunt soon commenced, bringing American and Chinese law enforcement officials together in the first collaboration of its kind. During the ensuing three-year-long formal investigation, miscommunications within these organizations -- and the strained political relationship between the two nations -- confounded the case, leading one American FBI agent to comment in 1980: “I understand why [the Chinese government] is so upset. This is like a hundred of our Liberty Bells getting swiped. But I can’t see a happy ending to this investigation.”

But now, thanks to Brinkvale patient Spindler’s confession, critical -- if nigh-unbelievable -- details are now available. According to the report, Spindler, along with friends and fellow Manhattan residents Gladys Singer and Jacqueline King, conspired to seduce the museum’s curator using an “occult ritual.” The three women also made themselves “available” to Willis and convinced him to steal the sword, the statement said.

The Harvard-educated Willis did indeed swipe the relic and soon presented it to the trio. According to the document, Spindler murdered the man, and then turned the Bloodsword on her cohorts. It remains unknown why the women wanted the sword, or what Spindler did with it after killing her co-conspirators.

Remarkably, therapist Taylor deduced the location of the three buried bodies in West Nyack, as well as the final hiding spot of the Bloodsword, by gleaning clues stitched into the quilts Spindler created as part of her Brinkvale therapy. Police officials have not yet revealed how Taylor did this, or the secret location of the artifact. They have also not announced any conclusive evidence connecting Spindler to the crime, though they claim it exists.

While Taylor has declined to comment to any media about this discovery, Brinkvale Chief Administrator Theodore Peterson said he is proud of the therapist’s work.

“Zach Taylor is an exemplary employee, and embodies the very best of what Brinkvale Psychiatric can provide,” he said. “We’re thrilled to have him here, exploring the frontiers of mental health care.”

As the New York County District Attorney’s Office nears an announcement of the trial date for alleged killer Martin Grace, police departments across the state are coordinating to provide evidence in other slayings, all reportedly linked to the Brooklyn resident.

Grace, recently nicknamed the “blind serial killer” by local media, faces charges for the brutal 2004 rape and murder of hip-hop artist Tayna Gold. On April 21 of that year, Grace allegedly confronted the singer and announced his intentions to kill her. The 21-year-old was found murdered the next day, in a fashion matching Grace’s description.

According to the city’s District Attorney’s office and media relations sources from five police departments -- including cities Albany, Conquest, Rochester and Syracuse -- Grace is under suspicion for at least 10 other murders that occurred during the past decade. Several of these investigators report that Grace shared similar “death details” with those victims, as prosecutors claim he did with Gold five years ago.

This statewide cooperation is a result of District Attorney William V. Taylor’s pursuit of corroborating evidence in the Tanya Gold murder case, sources said.

While officials did not reveal victims’ identities due to the “ongoing nature” of their investigations, many said Grace personally knew these victims, and relocated to other cities within days of their deaths.

According to police department sources, most of these deaths were initially determined to be accidental, or suicides. Others had simply remained unsolved.

“During our follow-up investigations, we discovered anecdotal evidence that Grace told (a female victim) she would hang herself. The next day, it happened,” said Jeffrey Spiro, a media relations officer for the NYPD. The incident occurred in 2006, he said. “Before her death, the victim had shared this information with her boyfriend and family. She had worked with Grace the week before, at Quarter-Note,” a local recording studio where Grace was employed at the time.

In addition to this “prediction,” Spiro stated the implement used in the victim’s once-apparent suicide could not have caused the deep cuts found on her neck. “We also have other evidence linking Grace to the scene,” he said.

Police media specialist Charlene Acker cited a similar 2006 death in Brooklyn, initially ruled as accidental. A resident, who worked with Grace for nearly a year, was warned by Grace to “be careful around his (workshop) rotary saw,” Acker said. Three days later, as the man worked alone at his home, his hand was severed by the tool. He died from the wound.

Based on police interviews of the victim’s wife, Grace soon became a suspect in that death, but “there wasn’t enough to charge him,” Acker said. “That was before [New York police] linked him in that bad business with the singer.”

Marian Cannon, Grace’s public defense attorney, called the statewide collaboration “a witch hunt,” and “another scare tactic in [District Attorney] Will Taylor’s unholy crusade to punish an innocent man.”

“Martin Grace did not commit these crimes,” she said. “Yes, he knew some of these individuals, and has not denied informing these people of those crassly-called ‘death details.’ But Grace has alibis for every incident. I’m appalled at the conspiracy Taylor is trying to build around this unwell man. Suffering from a mental illness does not mean he is a ‘blind serial killer.’”

Grace, who is currently under evaluation at Brinkvale Psychiatric Center, earned the peculiar nickname because he is legally blind. According to an anonymous source familiar with the case, the 56-year-old’s blindness is psychosomatic. This condition is often caused by emotional trauma.

The nickname is erroneous, as Grace’s condition did not occur until two years ago, the source said. This was several months after the final murder in which he is a suspect occurred. “Grace insists he didn’t personally kill these people,” the source said. “He is a ... complex man.”

The wife of the 2006 Brooklyn victim disagreed. The New York Journal-Ledger contacted her after deducing her identity from information provided by officials.

“If you saw what I saw that day,” she said, speaking on the condition of anonymity, “and you knew [Grace] and heard what he told [my husband], you’d know. You’d know it in your heart. That man is a stone-cold killer.”