In Chap­ter 22 of “The Art Thief,” four months after a sig­nif­i­cant theft, the pro­tag­o­nists, Bre­itwieser and Anne-Cather­ine, vis­it a mod­est art gallery in Lucerne, Switzer­land, dur­ing a hot day. Though they usu­al­ly avoid steal­ing from com­mer­cial gal­leries, a cap­ti­vat­ing still life by Willem van Aelst catch­es Breitwieser’s eye, and he feels com­pelled to take it. Despite Anne-Cather­ine’s warn­ings, he believes he can man­age the theft and con­fi­dent­ly tells her, “Trust me.” He lifts the paint­ing off the wall and hides it under his arm.

How­ev­er, just moments lat­er, they are con­front­ed by a gallery employ­ee who accus­es Bre­itwieser of theft. Stunned and unable to for­mu­late a sol­id excuse, he is quick­ly seized, and despite Anne-Cather­ine’s pleas for his release, both are arrest­ed and tak­en to sep­a­rate hold­ing cells in the police sta­tion near­by. Bre­itwieser expe­ri­ences intense regret and fear, wor­ry­ing that Anne-Cather­ine might con­fess their past crimes under police pres­sure.

The next day, both are trans­port­ed to court in sep­a­rate cages with­in a prison van. They man­age to exchange words, reas­sur­ing each oth­er to main­tain their sto­ries. In court, Bre­itwieser gives a tear­ful and deceit­ful con­fes­sion, claim­ing it was his first offense and that Anne-Cather­ine was unin­volved. Their lack of pri­or crim­i­nal records leans in their favor, and they are released on bail after the inter­ven­tion of Breitwieser’s moth­er, Sten­gel.

Upon return­ing home, how­ev­er, Sten­gel’s ini­tial lenien­cy turns to fury over the shame brought upon her by her son’s actions. She hires a Swiss attor­ney to frame the inci­dent as a youth­ful mis­take, lead­ing to sus­pend­ed sen­tences and a ban from Switzer­land for three years.

Emo­tion­al­ly, the expe­ri­ence hits Anne-Cather­ine hard; she fears for their future, espe­cial­ly since she had dis­cov­ered her preg­nan­cy months pri­or but refrained from telling Bre­itwieser. Sten­gel and Anne-Cather­ine secret­ly planned for an abor­tion, believ­ing the cou­ple was not ready for par­ent­hood. Anne-Cather­ine feels a glim­mer of hope after their ordeal, con­tem­plat­ing the pos­si­bil­i­ty of a future with­out crime. How­ev­er, Bre­itwieser, feel­ing unpun­ished and embold­ened, thinks they could still con­tin­ue their reck­less lives with­out imme­di­ate con­se­quences, delay­ing any thoughts of reform or respon­si­bil­i­ty.