The Art Thief summary

When young Stéphane was first introduced to Anne-Catherine at a high-school birthday party in 1991, it was the first time he felt a passionate interest in another person and not an object. Despite his privileged upbringing by upper-middle class parents with deep ancestral roots in Alsace, Breitwieser always felt disconnected from others. 

His most cherished memories were archeological scouting trips on the weekend with his grandfather, whose interest in history was infectious. It was on these trips that Stéphane discovered his love of historic artifacts, pocketing battlefield relics and other minor treasures to bring home to his small valuables chest.

Filling their treasure chest with pilfered art had emboldened the couple. Now, instead of carefully researching pieces ahead of time, thefts become opportunistic. That’s how Breitwieser discovered that a small card with the words removed for study could easily replace any object in a display case and delay discovery for weeks. The pair acquired an entire display case of historic silver that way. 

So on the afternoon that Breitwieser decided to steal from a small commercial gallery in Lucerne, despite the police station being just across the street, he might even have thought of himself as untouchable. He makes it only steps from the gallery with the small work by Dutch master, Willem van Aelst, tucked under his arm like a fresh baguette. When confronted by aggressive gallery security in the street, he can only stammer about not being aware of what he was doing.

While his partner Anne-Catherine became increasingly hesitant over new thefts, she extracted from Stéphane a promise to slow down, be more careful, and wear gloves to avoid leaving evidence. Instead, Breitwieser steps up his activities, now traveling alone multiple times a weekend and stealing hordes of rare objects. Art is now stuffed under the bed and crammed into corners.

The art is suffering, too. Renaissance pieces aren't meant to be stuffed into humid spaces. Tapestries crumble, paintings warp and crack. Some have been here almost a decade. Still the objects roll in at an astonishing pace. When Breitwieser arrives home one afternoon in 2001 with a bugle stolen from the home of Richard Wagner, now a museum, he immediately confesses he didn’t wear gloves and left fingerprints. When Anne-Catherine learns that the Wagner museum is in Lucerne, she panics.

In the three weeks between Breitwieser’s arrest and the issuing of a search warrant for his mother’s home, no one really knows what happened. Breitwieser’s mother has never spoken about the days after her son’s arrest. Even after being prosecuted for her role in covering up his crimes.

What is known from testimony by Kleinklaus and others is that when police failed to notice Anne-Catherine was with Breitwieser, she immediately drove to his mother’s home to tell her of the arrest. Anne-Catherine would break things off with Stéphane and put this all behind her.