Chap­ter 23 of “The Art Thief” dives deeply into the increas­ing­ly tense and com­plex rela­tion­ship between Bre­itwieser and Anne-Cather­ine. In this chap­ter, Anne-Cather­ine is con­front­ed with a life-alter­ing deci­sion: whether to con­tin­ue her tumul­tuous rela­tion­ship with Bre­itwieser, despite the over­whelm­ing con­se­quences that their crim­i­nal activ­i­ties have brought upon her. As their life togeth­er becomes more entan­gled in theft, Anne-Cather­ine shows her will­ing­ness to com­pro­mise, choos­ing to stay with him even though she is aware of the poten­tial dan­gers that their crim­i­nal lifestyle may bring. Her deci­sion, how­ev­er, comes with deep emo­tion­al tur­moil. It reveals the inter­nal bat­tle she faces, torn between her affec­tion for Bre­itwieser and the grow­ing aware­ness of the toll his actions have had on her well-being. This chap­ter paints a vivid pic­ture of a love that is simul­ta­ne­ous­ly a source of com­fort and a destruc­tive force in Anne-Catherine’s life.

In an attempt to regain con­trol of their reck­less lifestyle, Anne-Cather­ine sug­gests a truce between the two, urg­ing for less fre­quent thefts and a more cau­tious approach to their crim­i­nal activ­i­ties. She even pro­pos­es that Switzer­land, where they had pre­vi­ous­ly been arrest­ed, should be off-lim­its. How­ev­er, despite this ini­tial agree­ment, Bre­itwieser’s addic­tion to the thrill of steal­ing proves too pow­er­ful to ignore. Dur­ing a trip to Paris, his com­pul­sion over­pow­ers the truce, and he impul­sive­ly steals a valu­able paint­ing from an auc­tion house. Anne-Cather­ine reluc­tant­ly acts as his look­out, try­ing to main­tain some lev­el of con­trol, but Breitwieser’s desire for art becomes all-con­sum­ing. The suc­cess of the heist only fuels his crav­ing for more, and the two man­age to avoid cap­ture, though the con­se­quences of their actions con­tin­ue to hang over them like a dark cloud. This event under­scores the com­plex­i­ty of their dynamic—while Anne-Cather­ine tries to nav­i­gate their world, Bre­itwieser con­tin­ues to spi­ral deep­er into his obses­sion with art and the thrill of theft.

In the days that fol­low, Breitwieser’s com­pul­sion only grows stronger, lead­ing him to dis­re­gard Anne-Cather­ine’s ear­li­er com­pro­mise. As they con­tin­ue their jour­ney through France, he claims more art, ignor­ing her con­cerns and fur­ther deep­en­ing their involve­ment in a crim­i­nal lifestyle. Their rela­tion­ship is ana­lyzed by ther­a­pist César Redon­do, who notes a trou­bling pow­er imbal­ance, sug­gest­ing that Anne-Cather­ine may not just be an accom­plice, but a vic­tim of emo­tion­al manip­u­la­tion, or pos­si­bly even phys­i­cal abuse by Bre­itwieser. Despite these con­cerns, those close to Anne-Cather­ine observe that she isn’t entire­ly pow­er­less in the rela­tion­ship. She holds a sta­ble job, main­tain­ing some lev­el of inde­pen­dence, and is not entire­ly depen­dent on Bre­itwieser. How­ev­er, her emo­tion­al con­nec­tion to him and her sense of duty to the rela­tion­ship seem to trap her in a cycle of unhealthy behav­ior, where she sac­ri­fices her own well-being for the sake of main­tain­ing their bond.

The turn­ing point of their rela­tion­ship comes when Bre­itwieser dis­cov­ers that Anne-Cather­ine had an abor­tion in secret. Feel­ing deeply betrayed by her secre­cy, he lash­es out in a fit of rage, con­fronting her vio­lent­ly. In a moment of uncon­trol­lable anger, he slaps her, an act that pro­found­ly shakes Anne-Cather­ine to her core. The emo­tion­al and phys­i­cal abuse serves as the break­ing point in their already frag­ile rela­tion­ship. Anne-Cather­ine, now deeply hurt and exhaust­ed from the tur­moil, makes the painful deci­sion to leave Bre­itwieser and return to her par­ents’ home for safe­ty and refuge. This moment marks a crit­i­cal shift in their dynamic—what was once a pas­sion­ate and reck­less rela­tion­ship built on love and shared crim­i­nal activ­i­ty has now become emo­tion­al­ly abu­sive, and it is clear that they can no longer sus­tain their bond. Anne-Catherine’s depar­ture sig­nals the end of their tumul­tuous rela­tion­ship, as the con­se­quences of their actions and their tox­ic behav­ior have final­ly reached an irre­versible point.