Stéphane Breitwieser
Encyclopedia
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
art thief who admitted to stealing 239 artworks and other exhibits, worth an estimated US$1.4 billion (£960m), from 172 museums while travelling around Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
and working as a waiter
Waiter
Waiting staff, wait staff, or waitstaff are those who work at a restaurant or a bar attending customers — supplying them with food and drink as requested. Traditionally, a male waiting tables is called a "waiter" and a female a "waitress" with the gender-neutral version being a "server"...
, an average of one theft every 15 days. The Guardian called him "arguably the world's most consistent art thief."
He differs from most other art thieves in that he did not steal for any profit motive. He was a self-described art connoisseur who stole in order to build a vast personal collection, particularly of 16th and 17th century masters. At his trial, the magistrate quoted him as saying, "I enjoy art. I love such works of art. I collected them and kept them at home." Despite the immensity of his collection, he was still able to recall every piece he stole. He interrupted the lengthy reading of his collection during his trial several times to correct various details.
Thefts
His first theft came in March 1995 during a visit to the medieval castle at BonnBonn
Bonn is the 19th largest city in Germany. Located in the Cologne/Bonn Region, about 25 kilometres south of Cologne on the river Rhine in the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, it was the capital of West Germany from 1949 to 1990 and the official seat of government of united Germany from 1990 to 1999....
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
with his then-girlfriend Anne-Catherine Kleinklauss. He became entranced with a small painting by Christian Wilhelm Dietrich, later saying, "I was fascinated by her beauty, by the qualities of the woman in the portrait and by her eyes. I thought it was an imitation of Rembrandt." With his girlfriend keeping watch, he worked out the nails holding the painting in its frame and slipped it under his jacket. In July 1995, he took an ancient crossbow in his first theft from a museum. He would use similar methods for at least 170 other museums for his thefts in the ensuing years. He would visit small collections and regional museums, where security was lax, and Kleinklauss would serve as his lookout as he cut the paintings from their frames, and in an estimated 60% of his thefts, she acted as a loud decoy
Decoy
A decoy is usually a person, device or event meant as a distraction, to conceal what an individual or a group might be looking for. Decoys have been used for centuries most notably in game hunting, but also in wartime and in the committing or resolving of crimes.-Duck decoy:The term duck decoy may...
while he pulled off the heist, directing guards' attention away from closed-circuit television or cameras.
The most valuable work of art he stole was Sybille, Princess of Cleves by Lucas Cranach the Elder
Lucas Cranach the Elder
Lucas Cranach the Elder , was a German Renaissance painter and printmaker in woodcut and engraving...
from a castle in Baden-Baden
Baden-Baden
Baden-Baden is a spa town in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is located on the western foothills of the Black Forest, on the banks of the Oos River, in the region of Karlsruhe...
in 1995. Its estimated value at auction would be £5-£5.6 million. He cut it from its frame at a Sotheby's
Sotheby's
Sotheby's is the world's fourth oldest auction house in continuous operation.-History:The oldest auction house in operation is the Stockholms Auktionsverk founded in 1674, the second oldest is Göteborgs Auktionsverk founded in 1681 and third oldest being founded in 1731, all Swedish...
auction where it was to be sold.
Although he amassed such a large collection of art, he never attempted to sell any of it for profit, instead enjoying thinking about how he was "the wealthiest man in Europe." It was all kept in his bedroom in his mother's house in Mulhouse
Mulhouse
Mulhouse |mill]] hamlet) is a city and commune in eastern France, close to the Swiss and German borders. With a population of 110,514 and 278,206 inhabitants in the metropolitan area in 2006, it is the largest city in the Haut-Rhin département, and the second largest in the Alsace region after...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. His room was kept in semi-darkness so the sunlight would not fade the paintings. A local framer did not recognize the art which he would re-frame for Nikolaus as being some of Europe's masterpieces. His mother, Marielle Schwengel, did not at first realize that the works were stolen and thought they were legitimately bought at auction, but then later suspected that he had not bought them legitimately. Breitwieser often spent time with his large collection. When he discovered that one painting he had stolen, purportedly by van der Helst
Bartholomeus van der Helst
Bartholomeus van der Helst was a Dutch portrait painter.-Biography:Born in Haarlem, the son of a Haarlem innkeeper, Van der Helst moved to Amsterdam some time before 1636, for he was married there in that year...
, was a fake, he burnt it.
Around 110 pieces from his collection have been recovered, leaving another 60 unaccounted for, presumed destroyed. His collection included: (* for those that are presumed destroyed, ** for those that are known to be destroyed)
- Pieter Brueghel the YoungerPieter Brueghel the YoungerPieter Brueghel the Younger /ˈpitəɾ ˈbɾøːxəl/ was a Flemish painter, known for numerous copies after his father Pieter Brueghel the Elder's paintings and nicknamed "Hell Brueghel" for his fantastic treatments of fire and grotesque imagery.-Life:Pieter Brueghel the Younger was the oldest son of the...
- Cheat Profiting From His Master**, cut with scissors - Antoine WatteauAntoine WatteauJean-Antoine Watteau was a French painter whose brief career spurred the revival of interest in colour and movement...
- Two Men* - François BoucherFrançois BoucherFrançois Boucher was a French painter, a proponent of Rococo taste, known for his idyllic and voluptuous paintings on classical themes, decorative allegories representing the arts or pastoral occupations, intended as a sort of two-dimensional furniture...
- Sleeping Shepherd**, which Breitwieser kept by his pillow and his mother put in the garbage disposalGarbage disposalA garbage disposal unit or waste disposal unit is a device, usually electrically powered, installed under a kitchen sink between the sink's drain and the trap which shreds food waste into pieces small enough—generally less than —to pass through plumbing.Garbage disposal units are widely used in... - Corneille de LyonCorneille de LyonCorneille de Lyon was a Dutch painter of portraits who was active from 1533 until his death in Lyon, France...
- Madeleine of France, Queen of Scotland**, garbage disposal - David TeniersDavid TeniersDavid Teniers may refer to three Flemish artists, father, son, and grandson:*David Teniers the Elder , turned from large religious paintings to landscapes and genre scenes...
- The Monkey's Ball**, shredded with scissors
Breitwieser and Kleinklauss were first caught in 1997, when they walked off with a William van Aelst landscape from a private collection in a gallery, which they were allowed to see with special permission from the owner. Alerted to the theft, the owner ran out and recognized the two as they got into Breitwieser's mother's car. Another artifact was found in the car. Because it was his first offense on Swiss soil, he was given only an eight-month suspended sentence and banned from entering Switzerland until May 2000. However, his job was across the border from France in Switzerland, and he continued working under his mother's maiden name. He also continued his thefts, even returning to museums of prior crimes to steal again.
Capture
In November 2001, he was finally caught after stealing a bugleBugle (instrument)
The bugle is one of the simplest brass instruments, having no valves or other pitch-altering devices. All pitch control is done by varying the player's embouchure, since the bugle has no other mechanism for controlling pitch. Consequently, the bugle is limited to notes within the harmonic series...
dating from 1584, one of only three like it in the world and with an estimated value of £45,000, from the Richard Wagner
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas...
Museum in Lucerne
Lucerne
Lucerne is a city in north-central Switzerland, in the German-speaking portion of that country. Lucerne is the capital of the Canton of Lucerne and the capital of the district of the same name. With a population of about 76,200 people, Lucerne is the most populous city in Central Switzerland, and...
, Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
. A security guard spotted Breitwieser before he escaped. However, he returned to the museum two days later. That day, a journalist, Erich Eisner, was walking his dog on the museum grounds when he noticed a man who seemed out of place in a nice overcoat, surveying the museum. Aware of the recent theft, Eisner alerted the main guard, who happened to be the same guard who had seen Breitwieser at the heist and alerted the authorities, who arrested Breitwieser. Lucerne police awarded Eisner's dog a lifetime supply of food in appreciation. Breitwieser spent two years in prison in Switzerland before being extradited to France. However, it took Swiss authorities 19 days to acquire the international search warrant necessary to search Breitwieser's mother's house. They found nothing, and Breitwiser did not confess until a few months later, giving authorities a detailed account of the works he had stolen.
Marielle Schwengel's destruction of the art
Meanwhile, when Breitwieser's mother had heard of her son's arrest from Kleinklauss, who had been able to evade authorities, she proceeded to destroy many of the works by cutting or carving them up, leaving the remains of the frames in the trash over a period of several weeks and forcing the shredded paintings down her garbage disposal unitGarbage disposal
A garbage disposal unit or waste disposal unit is a device, usually electrically powered, installed under a kitchen sink between the sink's drain and the trap which shreds food waste into pieces small enough—generally less than —to pass through plumbing.Garbage disposal units are widely used in...
. Other artifacts, such as vases, jewelry, pottery, and statuettes, were simply thrown into the nearby Rhone-Rhine Canal, where some were later recovered through dredging. She claimed that she destroyed the paintings out of anger at her son, but police believe it was to destroy incriminating evidence against him. She apparently had no inkling of the large monetary value of the works she destroyed. Police found nothing besides the cord of the stolen antique bugle when they first searched her home, and she took seven months to admit to destroying the artwork, after some pieces had washed up on the shore of the Rhine. A Swiss police officer said, "[N]ever have so many old masters been destroyed at the same time."
Sentence
On January 7, 2005 he was sentenced to three years by a court in StrasbourgStrasbourg
Strasbourg is the capital and principal city of the Alsace region in eastern France and is the official seat of the European Parliament. Located close to the border with Germany, it is the capital of the Bas-Rhin département. The city and the region of Alsace are historically German-speaking,...
but only served 26 months. The day before his sentencing he attempted to hang himself, but was stopped after another inmate alerted guards. His mother also received a three-year sentence for destroying artwork, but only served 18 months, and his ex-girlfriend received 18 months with only six to serve for receiving stolen items.
Breitwiesser wrote an autobiography
Autobiography
An autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...
of his exploits, titled Confessions d'un Voleur d'art ("Confessions of an Art Thief"), published in French in 2006. A German-language translation, "Bekenntnisse eines Kunstdiebes", was published by Bertelsmann, Munich in 2007.
Additional source
- (French language): Vincent Noce, la Collection égoïste: la folle aventure d'un voleur d'art en série et autres histoires édifiantes. – ParisParisParis is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
: Jean-Claude Lattès, 2005. – 327 p., 23 cm. – ISBN 2-7096-2441-9.
External links
- He Knows What He Likes from The Malefactor's Register