In Chap­ter 12 of “The Art Thief,” the nar­ra­tive opens with Bre­itwieser, Anne-Cather­ine, and his moth­er return­ing home after a Sotheby’s auc­tion where a theft occurred. In the inti­ma­cy of their attic, they remove Cranach’s paint­ing, “Sibylle of Cleves,” from the auc­tion cat­a­log, mar­veling at its his­to­ry and unique­ness. This moment brings Bre­itwieser a sense of eupho­ria, free from the stress of their crim­i­nal activ­i­ties.

The cou­ple’s attic serves as their pri­vate sanc­tu­ary — a place where they can escape soci­etal inter­ac­tions they both find tedious. Bre­itwieser, a self-pro­claimed lon­er, feels that art has replaced social life, and his rela­tion­ship with Anne-Cather­ine and their stolen mas­ter­pieces forms his ide­al exis­tence. He fan­ta­sizes about a seclud­ed life on an island with her and their art.

Anne-Cather­ine con­trasts Breitwieser’s seclu­sion with her occa­sion­al social inter­ac­tions at work and with friends, although they main­tain strict secre­cy about their true selves. They are bound by their shared life, which, while rich in col­or and excite­ment through art theft, feels mono­chro­mat­ic and iso­lat­ing at times. Their exis­tence is punc­tu­at­ed by the pres­ence of his moth­er, Mireille Sten­gel, who main­tains a more extro­vert­ed lifestyle, fre­quent­ly host­ing guests.

On Christ­mas Day, three months post-theft, Bre­itwieser films his moth­er prepar­ing for fam­i­ly fes­tiv­i­ties. The con­trast between fam­i­ly cheer and his illic­it activ­i­ties sur­faces when he jok­ing­ly shares his New Year res­o­lu­tions, reveal­ing a child­like side to his per­sona amid his crim­i­nal ambi­tion. As he dis­cuss­es future thefts, it is clear that he craves val­i­da­tion from those around him.

Despite his mother’s sus­pi­cions about his activ­i­ties, she seems to live in a state of will­ful igno­rance about the extent of his crimes. Stengel’s con­flict between mater­nal love and soci­etal law cre­ates a com­plex dynam­ic, with her reluc­tance to con­front her son’s actions. As Bre­itwieser describes his mother’s dual aware­ness — know­ing yet choos­ing to ignore — it high­lights the emo­tion­al tur­moil under­pin­ning their rela­tion­ship. Ulti­mate­ly, he rec­og­nizes the del­i­cate bal­ance she holds between pro­tect­ing him and adher­ing to the law, know­ing that she is unlike­ly to betray him. This chap­ter expos­es the con­flict­ing dynam­ics of fam­i­ly loy­al­ty, love, and the bur­dens of crim­i­nal­i­ty.