The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession

The author asserts that accomplishing three impromptu museum thefts in rapid succession is an unusual feat. Most thefts involve considerable planning and resources. For example, Vincenzo Peruggia, who stole the Mona Lisa in 1911, worked as a handyman at the Louvre for months beforehand. When the museum closed for cleaning, he used his knowledge of the security system to take the painting. In 1975, the “criminal mastermind” Myles Connor Jr. employed a gang of 17 people to steal a Rembrandt from the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. In 1985, two thieves studied the layout and security of the National Museum of Anthropology, Mexico City, for six months before their theft on Christmas day. They accessed the building via an air-conditioning duct to steal Mayan and Aztec artifacts. In 2000, an international group of criminals stole two Renoirs and a Rembrandt from the Swedish National Museum. The gang caused a distraction with explosions, threatened staff with guns, and escaped by speedboat.

Finkel explains that the biggest challenge for art thieves is selling the goods without getting caught. After hiding the Mona Lisa at the bottom of a trunk for over two years, Peruggia was immediately arrested when he tried to sell it. Similarly, despite the elaborate nature of the raid on the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the thieves were later arrested, and the stolen items were retrieved.

A month after stealing from Gruyères Castle, Breitwieser and Anne-Catherine return to Switzerland. The couple steals a 16th-century religious painting from a fine arts museum. The crime is quickly reported in the newspapers, but the police have no suspects. Breitwieser believes a key to their success is their designer clothes. No one suspects the smartly-dressed couple.

Anne-Catherine moderates the risk and frequency of their crimes. She also insists that they limit stolen items to a size that can be concealed under a coat or in a bag. On one visit to a French museum, Breitwieser leaves his Swiss Army knife in the car, declaring he will not steal anything. When he falls in love with a charcoal drawing, Anne-Catherine hands him her nail clippers to use as a tool. He opens the case, and she extracts the drawing.

When Anne-Catherine terminates a mission, Breitwieser sometimes returns to the scene to steal alone. On one occasion, he takes a large wooden carving of a lion and a lamb that bulges under his coat. Breitwieser is ordinary-looking apart from his bright blue eyes and believes himself to be almost invisible. During the spring and summer of 1995, the couple commits thefts most weekends, moving between France and Switzerland. The joint ventures combined with Breitwieser’s solo missions make him one of history’s most prolific art thieves.

While Anne-Catherine is at work, Breitwieser visits libraries to study art catalogs and read widely on art history. He creates folders of materials on the provenance of items he has stolen. The couple’s thefts accelerate, as they sometimes take more than one item at once or steal from two museums in one day. Their success is partly due to the places they steal from. Most regional museums aim to make items accessible to the public. They also cannot afford extensive security, tending to invest funds in new exhibits. Finkel points out that the couple’s crimes abuse the public trust that museums rely on.

Occasionally, Breitwieser steals even when security cameras are present. Visiting the University of Basel’s museum, he notices that the screens in the security office are unwatched. Consequently, he takes a valuable painting of an apothecary by Willem van Mieris, keeping his back to the camera at all times.

Breitwieser attends an estate auction at a German castle on his 24th birthday. Anne-Catherine and his mother accompany him, but Mireille Stengel stays outside with her dogs. Breitwieser’s target is the portrait Sibylle of Cleves by Renaissance painter Lucas Cranach the Younger. Worth millions of dollars, the painting is guarded. Anne-Catherine opposes the theft as too risky, but Breitwieser persuades her to keep watch. While the security guard talks to a colleague, Breitwieser lifts the unlocked display dome and conceals the painting in his auction catalog. While replacing the dome, he knocks over an easel, but no one notices.

Finkel discusses Breitwieser’s psychology in this chapter. When he was arrested, the art thief was forced to undergo psychological assessments and a series of personality tests. The Swiss psychotherapist Michel Schmidt concluded Breitwieser was “a narcissist” whose sense of superiority led him to believe he was entitled to the artworks he stole. He asserted that Breitwieser had no empathy, did not experience remorse, and was incapable of change. Although the art thief perceived his crimes as “victimless,” he did not consider the consequences if everyone behaved the same way. Schmidt identified Breitwieser’s mother as contributing to his narcissism, as she indulged his every whim. Breitwieser’s desire to match his father’s art collection may also have been an initial motivation for his crimes. Anne-Catherine was also psychologically assessed. Therapists concluded she was “susceptible to control” (63), and unlikely to commit crimes alone.

Breitwieser argues that the history of art is based on theft, from the raiding of Egyptian tombs to Hitler’s theft of artworks during World War II. To elaborate on this claim, Finkel cites the example of the Horses of Saint Mark—a set of Greek sculptures dating from the fourth century BC. The bronze statues were first stolen by Nero’s army and displayed in Rome. Later, they were seized by Constantine the Great and taken to Turkey. When Italian forces looted the horses, they were displayed in Saint Mark’s Basilica, Venice. In the 18th century, Napoleon took the statues and displayed them in the Louvre. Following the Battle of Waterloo, Britain restored the sculpture to Venice. Similarly, many of the prize exhibits in the British Museum were taken from other countries, including the Rosetta Stone from Egypt, the Elgin Marbles from the Parthenon in Greece, and the Benin Bronzes from Nigeria. Breitwieser also claims that art dealers and auction houses often knowingly trade in stolen goods.

A Christmas home video shows Mireille Stengel overhearing her son brag that he plans to steal art worth millions. She laughs, but her expression is strained. Breitwieser always corroborated his mother’s claim that she did not know about his art thefts. Finkel points out that, although the attic was always locked, Mireille Stengel could have entered at any time with her own key.