This artwork thief nabbed 239 artistic endeavors price an estimated $2 billion

Leisure

By Caroline Howe

August 12, 2023 | 2:52pm

Frenchman Stéphane Breitwieser was an artwork junkie, and to get his repair, he stole some 239 artistic endeavors with an estimated worth of a whopping $2 billion — from as many as 200 museums throughout Europe.

One of many helpful items was the previous grasp portray “Sybille, Princess of Cleves,” by the artist Lucas Cranach the Elder, painted in 1526 and stolen from the New Fortress in Baden-Baden, Germany.

All Breitwieser needed to do with the dear items he stole was to bizarrely show them in what he thought of his personal private Louvre — the small, cramped attic of his mom’s modest residence within the industrial metropolis of Mulhouse, in Japanese France, the place he lived along with his sweetheart.

“No tobacco or caffeine, no alcohol besides a sip of wine . . . and by no means marijuana or something more durable. However a pure dose of artwork can set his head to spinning,” writes Michael Finkel in “The Artwork Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Harmful Obsession” (Knopf).

“To him, magnificence is the world’s solely true foreign money — the individual with probably the most magnificence is, due to this fact, the richest. He has generally thought of himself one of many wealthiest individuals alive.”

Breitwieser was in his 20s when he stole the artwork, largely throughout a grand theft tour of France, Holland, Switzerland, Germany, and Austria from 1994 to 2001.

He primarily stole from museums and was accompanied by his girlfriend and confederate, Anne-Catherine Kleinklaus.

His ardour for artwork was gluttonous; it excited him emotionally and even sexually to the touch it.

“So many nice artistic endeavors are sexually arousing that what you’ll additionally need to do is set up a mattress close by for when your companion is there and the timing is correct,” Breitwieser informed the writer.

The artwork thief imagined he suffered from a weird sickness known as Stendhal Syndrome, throughout which he skilled signs of dizziness, and coronary heart palpitations that set his head to begin spinning when he noticed the artwork he needed to own.

However whereas Breitwieser claimed that “artwork is my drug,” the writer disagrees.

“What Breitwieser is absolutely hooked on . . . is stealing,” writes Finkel. “He’s a glorified shoplifter, he’s a kleptomaniac.”

However he was a really savvy and shrewd kleptomaniac.

Breitwieser was capable of free work he had chosen to liberate from museums utilizing a standard on a regular basis carry system, a Swiss Military knife. As soon as free, he would slip the paintings inside his pants (assuming the portray wasn’t outsized.)

On one event, he went a bit overboard on his haul from a museum.

He stuffed his backpack, crammed his overcoat, and even made a bulge in his trousers with a helpful teapot, six silver cups, a cutlery set in a wood case, and two serving spoons.

On this method, Breitwieser’s tiny household attic turned “much less a room within the Louvre than the world’s Most worthy junkyard.”

Breitwieser was a grasp at planning his heists.

He’d goal a particular work he had seen in an artist’s catalog, or by merely strolling a museum or gallery.

All the time, he was accompanied by his stylish, tastefully dressed girlfriend, sporting classic Dior or Chanel, whereas he had the preppy button-down shirt look.

Plus his trusty Swiss Military knife was loaded with devices.

They normally selected lunchtime as the perfect time to commit their crimes, based on the writer, scoping out safety cameras, the location of safety guards, and the perfect escape routes.

She stood guard whereas he discovered his desired murals, and made himself seem like another vacationer — “all meant to connote serene contemplation, even whereas his coronary heart is revving with pleasure and concern,” writes Finkel.

However luck finally runs out — and at some point, Breitwieser’s time was lastly up.

Nabbed for stealing a bugle in November 2001, he was jailed.

It was a minor cost.

However a police inspector suspected that Breitwieser was extra of a serial artwork thief and that his loot is likely to be way more intensive and helpful than a horn.

He obtained a search warrant for Breitwieser’s mom’s home, the place he nonetheless lived.

However the inspector was shocked when he searched the place and located the partitions — presumably as soon as lined with helpful work — now naked.

Because it turned out, Breitwieser’s mom had really gotten rid of her son’s stolen treasures — throwing many of the objects into the Rhone-Rhine Canal, in jap Alsace.

She tossed different items in a ditch close to the German border, some in a forest — and a few, she burned.

Breitwieser served three years and 7 months in jail for his thefts in France and Switzerland. As soon as launched, he shoplifted clothes solely to be jailed once more, earlier than finally returning to his artwork theft fetish.

He moved to a small place close to his grandparents’ farmhouse in Alsace in northeastern France, the place he lived on authorities help.

When his mom purchased him one other automobile, he started driving to assorted Alsatian museums from which he hadn’t but stolen.

He was arrested once more when making an attempt to fence the newly pilfered artworks on eBay. 

His newest trial was in April 2023, for which he was sentenced to deal with arrest. He now wears an ankle monitor and will probably be within the penal system till he’s 60, in 2031.

“I used to be a grasp of the universe,” Finkel quotes him as saying. “Now I’m nothing.”