Chap­ter 2 begins with a hum­ble home sit­u­at­ed in Mul­house, an indus­tri­al city in east­ern France, where Stéphane Bre­itwieser and his girl­friend, Anne-Cather­ine Klein­klaus, lead their qui­et yet pecu­liar lives. The house itself, con­struct­ed from pale, stuc­coed con­crete, resem­bles a cube, its small win­dows and steep, red-tiled roof blend­ing into the sur­round­ing sub­ur­ban sprawl. Though it offers lit­tle in terms of archi­tec­tur­al splen­dor, this mod­est dwelling hides a world of aston­ish­ing trea­sures. Inside, most of their liv­ing space occu­pies the ground floor, but a nar­row stair­case leads up to a cramped, low-ceilinged attic room, which remains shroud­ed in mys­tery. This room, tucked under the rafters, is always kept locked and the shut­ters remain per­ma­nent­ly closed, keep­ing the cou­ple’s pre­cious col­lec­tion hid­den from the out­side world.

In their bed­room, the cen­ter­piece is a mag­nif­i­cent four-poster bed draped with lux­u­ri­ous gold velour cur­tains, flanked by plush red satin sheets and cush­ions that exude opu­lence. Upon wak­ing, Bre­itwieser often admires a prized ivory carv­ing of Adam and Eve, which he con­sid­ers a sym­bol of both beau­ty and crafts­man­ship. Along with the ivory sculp­ture, Bre­itwieser trea­sures oth­er fig­urines, includ­ing a depic­tion of the Roman god­dess Diana and anoth­er of Cather­ine of Alexan­dria. Each piece is metic­u­lous­ly craft­ed, cap­tur­ing intri­cate details that con­tin­ue to aston­ish him, with their lumi­nous glow infus­ing his morn­ings with a sense of awe.

On Bre­itwieser’s bed­side table, sev­er­al oth­er remark­able objects tell their own sto­ries. These include a pol­ished gold­en tobac­co box com­mis­sioned by Napoleon him­self, as well as a pris­mat­ic flower vase cre­at­ed by the famous French arti­san Émile Gal­lé. The pres­ence of these items, each with its own rich his­tor­i­cal sig­nif­i­cance, trans­forms the night­stand into a minia­ture muse­um of sorts, a per­son­al tes­ta­ment to the cou­ple’s fas­ci­na­tion with his­to­ry and art. Along­side these trea­sures, a lav­ish sil­ver gob­let and an assort­ment of tobac­co tins, bronzes, and porce­lain fig­urines are care­ful­ly arranged, each object exud­ing a sense of grandeur and nos­tal­gia.

Anne-Catherine’s side of the bed is equal­ly adorned with trea­sures. Her night table, along with a large armoire, desk, and dress­er, over­flows with an eclec­tic assort­ment of items, includ­ing sil­ver plat­ters, gild­ed tea sets, and unique weapon­ry. The sec­ond room in the house holds even more remark­able arti­facts, such as a wood­en altar­piece, a stained-glass win­dow, and a vari­ety of musi­cal instru­ments. Each piece seems to tell a sto­ry, paint­ing a pic­ture of the cou­ple’s deep, almost insa­tiable thirst for art, his­to­ry, and cul­ture, and their desire to curate their own world of beau­ty.

Despite the chaos of over­flow­ing trea­sures, the home is filled with a sense of warmth and won­der. The arm­chairs, win­dowsills, and clos­ets are packed with wrist­watch­es, tapes­tries, and medieval artifacts—each item adding to the rich tapes­try of their lives. How­ev­er, it is the couple’s art col­lec­tion that tru­ly stands out. The walls of their home are adorned with stun­ning oil paint­ings from the six­teenth and sev­en­teenth cen­turies, with mas­ter­pieces from renowned artists such as Lucas Cranach and Albrecht Dür­er. The vibrant col­ors and intri­cate details of these works fill the small space, mak­ing it feel as though the room is alive with the ener­gy of the past. These paint­ings do not mere­ly dec­o­rate the walls; they become a part of the couple’s dai­ly exis­tence, a con­stant reminder of their pas­sion for pre­serv­ing the past.

Art jour­nal­ists have esti­mat­ed the val­ue of the couple’s col­lec­tion to be worth as much as two bil­lion dol­lars, an aston­ish­ing fig­ure that places their trove of art and antiques far beyond what most peo­ple could ever imag­ine. The house, mod­est on the out­side, is home to a trea­sure chest of rare and price­less items. In the qui­et soli­tude of their attic, Bre­itwieser and Anne-Cather­ine have cul­ti­vat­ed a world filled with beau­ty, his­to­ry, and culture—a world that exists far beyond the reach­es of most peo­ple’s com­pre­hen­sion. This col­lec­tion, hid­den in plain sight with­in an unre­mark­able sub­ur­ban home, rep­re­sents not only a per­son­al pas­sion but a mon­u­men­tal achieve­ment in the realm of art and his­tor­i­cal preser­va­tion.