Chap­ter 29 of The Art Thief explores a sig­nif­i­cant moment in the sto­ry where the unrav­el­ing of Breitwieser’s crim­i­nal life becomes appar­ent. The scene is set in an inter­ro­ga­tion room, where detec­tive Meier presents Bre­itwieser with a pho­to­graph of a stolen gold-plat­ed medal­lion from the sev­en­teenth cen­tu­ry. This pho­to­graph acts as the cat­a­lyst for Bre­itwieser’s con­fes­sions, despite the min­i­mal evi­dence that was ini­tial­ly found dur­ing the police search of his res­i­dence. The sense of pres­sure mounts as Bre­itwieser, cut off from any con­tact with his fam­i­ly, feels increas­ing­ly iso­lat­ed, lead­ing him to admit to steal­ing the medal­lion. The weight of his actions is begin­ning to sink in, and his pre­vi­ous­ly con­fi­dent demeanor is replaced with guilt and fear, as the mag­ni­tude of the sit­u­a­tion becomes clear. This moment marks the begin­ning of his even­tu­al unrav­el­ing, where no fur­ther attempts at eva­sion will work, and the truth starts to come to light.

After admit­ting to the theft of the medal­lion, the pres­sure inten­si­fies when Meier presents more pho­tographs. One such image reveals a gold tobac­co box, which Bre­itwieser had stolen from a Swiss cas­tle along­side his accom­plice, Anne-Cather­ine. In an attempt to mit­i­gate the sit­u­a­tion and escape the grim real­i­ty of his high-secu­ri­ty con­fine­ment, Bre­itwieser admits to this crime as well. The dis­cov­ery of these items leads Meier to present a series of pho­tos, each show­cas­ing oth­er stolen trea­sures, includ­ing an ivory flute and sev­er­al pieces of sil­ver. With each pho­to­graph, Bre­itwieser real­izes the true extent of his thefts, feel­ing trapped as the evi­dence piles up. He begins to feel over­whelmed by the grav­i­ty of his actions and is forced to admit to all 107 thefts depict­ed in the images. It becomes clear that Bre­itwieser had not antic­i­pat­ed the extent of the police inves­ti­ga­tion and feels betrayed by his own inabil­i­ty to out­smart law enforce­ment.

Meier, despite the emo­tion­al weight of the sit­u­a­tion, main­tains his com­po­sure through­out the inter­ro­ga­tion. As Bre­itwieser pro­vides his con­fes­sions, a police report left open on the desk reveals an unex­pect­ed break­through. The report details how an elder­ly man named James Lance dis­cov­ered numer­ous stolen items while rak­ing through the Rhône-Rhine Canal, spark­ing a police oper­a­tion. Over three days, thir­ty offi­cers con­duct­ed an exten­sive inves­ti­ga­tion and recov­ered an array of stolen trea­sures, includ­ing sil­ver chal­ices and intri­cate­ly carved ivory pieces. These items, once dis­card­ed by Bre­itwieser and Anne-Cather­ine, are val­ued at an aston­ish­ing fifty mil­lion dol­lars. The recov­ery of these goods is a piv­otal moment in the inves­ti­ga­tion, as it links the two thieves to a much larg­er oper­a­tion, ulti­mate­ly expos­ing the scale of their crimes. The dis­cov­ery of these trea­sures marks a sig­nif­i­cant turn­ing point in the case, shift­ing the momen­tum firm­ly in favor of the author­i­ties.

Breitwieser’s down­fall con­tin­ues as he is moved from his high-secu­ri­ty con­fine­ment in Switzer­land to a prison in France. The tran­si­tion is marked by the heavy weight of his pre­vi­ous life crum­bling down around him. He is dressed in his for­mer cloth­ing and escort­ed by guards along with oth­er inmates, a far cry from the life he once knew as a con­fi­dent art thief. Once filled with a sense of supe­ri­or­i­ty and con­trol, Bre­itwieser is now con­sumed by vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty and fear as he con­tem­plates his uncer­tain future. The real­i­ty of his sit­u­a­tion set­tles in as he real­izes the mag­ni­tude of the con­se­quences that await him. What once felt like a game of eva­sion and art theft has now become a mat­ter of sur­vival with­in the bru­tal con­fines of the prison sys­tem. Breitwieser’s jour­ney has tak­en a dark turn, from the world of stolen trea­sures to a grim fate in prison, where he is left to reflect on his past choic­es.