In an exclusive excerpt from The Art Thief, gentleman burglar Stéphane Breitwieser committed more than 200 heists across Europe, stealing some $2 billion worth of art. But as fraught as his burglaries were, unloading the loot is even more perilous.
, gentleman burglar Stéphane Breitwieser committed more than 200 heists across Europe, stealing some $2 billion worth of art. But as fraught as his burglaries were, unloading the loot is even more perilous.pproaching the museum, ready to hunt, Stéphane Breitwieser clasps hands with his girlfriend, Anne-Catherine Kleinklaus, and together they stroll to the front desk and say hello, a cute couple. Then they purchase two tickets with cash and walk in.
All forms of security have a weakness. The flaw with the plexiglass box, he had noticed on his scouting visit, is that the upper part can be separated from the base by removing two screws. Tricky screws, sure, difficult to reach at the rear of the box, but just two. The flaw with the security guards is that they’re human. They get hungry. Most of the day, Breitwieser had observed, there is a guard in each gallery, watching from a chair.
Breitwieser hears a soft cough–that’s Anne-Catherine–and quickly reassumes art-watching mode as a guard walks into the room. The guard scans the gallery methodically, then turns around and is barely beneath the doorway before the theft resumes. This is how Breitwieser progresses, in fits and starts, grasshoppering about the gallery, a couple of turns of the screw, then a cough, a couple more, then another.
He leaves the plexiglass box to the side—he does not want to waste precious seconds replacing it—and strides off, moving with calculation but no obvious haste. He understands that such a conspicuous theft will swiftly be spotted, triggering an emergency response. The police will arrive. The museum could be locked down, all visitors searched.
Stéphane Breitwieser, however, is not an ordinary thief. A 52-year-old Frenchman who stole from an astounding 200 museums and churches across Europe in the late 1990s and early 2000s, he is an extreme outlier among art thieves. Very few criminals in history have stolen from as many as 10 museums—and the vast majority of art thieves, even if they aren’t caught, only attempt a museum crime once.
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