The Museum Thief. The True Story of Love and Criminal Obsession

Museums are a prison for art. When a masterpiece is right before you, one that takes your breath away and brings tears to your eyes, what could be more natural than the desire to admire it endlessly, to trace with... your fingers the precise movements of the chisel or brush?.. All of this is, of course, easier to do in silence and solitude, nestled in your favorite chair. As a boy, Stefan Breitweiser often visited museums, wandering alone for an entire day – it's hard to imagine a more sympathetic hobby for a teenager... By the early 2000s, Stefan Breitweiser was completely happy: he had found his calling, love, and fondly recalled the day when Anna-Kathrin responded positively to his hesitant question. 'Go ahead and take it,' she simply said, and Breitweiser committed his first museum theft, pulling an exhibit from the display case that he longed for. By 2002, Stefan Breitweiser had gained what he had never wanted: loud European fame. The press fought to calculate the fabulous damage that the audacious thief inflicted on museums. His astonishing method of theft, the vast list of stolen masterpieces, the heart-wrenching conclusion, and the subsequent global reassessment of museum security requirements clearly testified: the name of Stefan Breitweiser – a serial thief who never used violence and sold not a single stolen item – was henceforth destined to top any rankings of the most notorious crimes in the art world.