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

Breitwieser and Anne-Catherine live in Mulhouse—an unattractive suburb in eastern France. They occupy the house’s attic, keeping the doors locked and the windows shuttered. A grand four-poster bed stands in their bedroom. Breitwieser keeps Adam and Eve on his bedside table. The attic is crammed with other items stolen from museums, including bronzes and an enameled tobacco box commissioned by Napoleon. The walls are covered in Renaissance and Baroque oil paintings from the 16th and 17th centuries.

Breitwieser believes he is different from most art thieves. He is disgusted by financially-motivated, violent thefts and the mistreatment of artwork. For example, in 1990, two thieves dressed as police officers bound and gagged the guards of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. The robbers stole 13 works of art, including two Rembrandts, by cutting them out of their frames. When Breitwieser steals paintings, he carefully dismantles their fixings. His motivation for stealing is his love of art and not profit. He views himself as freeing artworks, believing museums do not provide a conducive atmosphere for their appreciation.

Anne-Catherine’s motivations for participating in the thefts are less clear. She is the practical one of the couple and works as a poorly-paid hospital nursing aide. Breitwieser only works occasionally. He survives on government welfare and handouts from his mother and grandparents. The couple has little money and lives for free with Breitwieser’s mother. Mireille Stengel owns the house and lives on the ground floor. Breitwieser prohibits his mother from going upstairs. If she sees him with new artworks, he claims they are flea-market buys or fakes.

Breitwieser is born in 1971 in the Alsace region of France, bordering Switzerland and Germany. His father, Roland Breitwieser, is an executive manager, and his mother is a pediatric nurse. Their house is furnished with 16th- and 17th-century antiques and paintings by a distant relative, Robert Breitwieser. The well-known expressionist artist paints Breitwieser as a toddler. Later in life, Breitwieser claims the artist was his grandfather.

Breitwieser is a loner who cannot identify with other children. He is bullied at school and has depression. His happiest moments are on “expeditions” to medieval ruins with his grandfather. Together, the pair looks for scraps of pottery and arrowheads. Breitwieser’s father is “authoritarian and demanding” (22). His mother tries to compensate, keeping quiet when he changes a mark on his school report before his father sees it. Breitwieser’s maternal grandparents also spoil him, buying him antiques. Breitwieser often visits museums alone and likes to touch the exhibits. At the Archaeological Museum of Strasbourg, he accidentally breaks off a piece of lead from a Roman coffin and puts it in his pocket. He keeps the lead with his other treasures in a blue plastic box.

Roland Breitwieser and Mireille Stengel often argue violently, and the police frequently attend their fights. In 1991, Roland leaves, taking his antiques and artworks with him. Mireille and her son move into an apartment with Ikea furniture. Breitwieser starts shoplifting, feeling no remorse. Disputes with police officers over parking tickets also lead to his arrest and an enforced stay in a behavioral therapy clinic. For one month, Breitwieser works as a museum guard. He hates the job but learns about museum security and steals an ancient belt buckle when he quits. He generally avoids the company of others until he falls in love.

Breitwieser meets Anne-Catherine at a party in 1991. At the time, Breitwieser and his family still live in a luxurious home and take regular sailing and skiing vacations. Anne-Catherine is from a less-privileged background. Her father is a line-cook, and her mother is a day-care worker. She has a calm temperament and supports her boyfriend when his father leaves. Her ambition to be a registered nurse is thwarted when she fails the entrance test. Breitwieser also abandons his undergraduate law studies.

In 1994, the couple commits their first art theft at a rural museum in Alsace. Breitwieser admires an 18th-century flintlock pistol similar to ones owned by his father. The couple is alone in the room, the display case is unlocked, and there are no cameras. Anne-Catherine, who shares her boyfriend’s aesthetic tastes, encourages him to take it. A later home video recorded by Breitwieser shows Anne-Catherine on their four-poster bed, referring to the roomful of stolen goods as her “kingdom.”

Despite the impulsive nature of the pistol theft and leaving fingerprints at the scene, Breitwieser and Anne-Catherine are not caught. Nine months later, they visit a castle museum in Alsace, where Breitwieser often went as a child. Hanging from the ceiling is a crossbow Breitwieser has always coveted. He stands on a chair to reach the crossbow, forces a window open, and drops the weapon outside, where he retrieves it. The theft is reported in a local newspaper, and the couple begins to keep a clippings scrapbook of their crimes.

Mireille Stengel receives her divorce settlement and buys the house in Mulhouse. She allows her son and Anne-Catherine to live in the attic, and Breitwieser’s grandparents give him a four-poster bed. He displays the pistol and crossbow on the wall.