Chap­ter 30 of The Art Thief explores a piv­otal moment in Bre­itwieser’s life as he finds him­self locked away in a somber Swiss prison. After his arrest, he is led to an inter­ro­ga­tion room where he encoun­ters the expe­ri­enced art-crime detec­tive, Alexan­dre Von der Müh­ll, who has been tire­less­ly inves­ti­gat­ing him for over six years. Unlike typ­i­cal inter­ro­ga­tions that are tense and aggres­sive, this one takes a dif­fer­ent approach. Von der Müh­ll employs sub­tle psy­cho­log­i­cal tech­niques and even flat­tery to estab­lish rap­port, cre­at­ing a sense of trust with Bre­itwieser. Their con­ver­sa­tion, con­duct­ed in French, takes on a more infor­mal and con­ver­sa­tion­al tone, as the detec­tive sug­gests that con­fess­ing to his crimes could result in a more lenient sen­tence. This idea intrigues Bre­itwieser, prompt­ing him to ques­tion whether con­fess­ing might offer him a way out of his cur­rent sit­u­a­tion, while also sig­nal­ing the begin­ning of a more com­plex rela­tion­ship between the two.

Their inter­ac­tions con­tin­ue for near­ly a month, with the two meet­ing dai­ly, and dur­ing these ses­sions, Von der Müh­ll pro­vides Bre­itwieser with var­i­ous art-relat­ed mate­ri­als, even dri­ving him to dif­fer­ent loca­tions. Despite the grow­ing sense of cama­raderie that is devel­op­ing between them, Bre­itwieser remains cau­tious, strate­gi­cal­ly down­play­ing the involve­ment of his accom­plices, such as Anne-Cather­ine and his moth­er. He insists that he alone is respon­si­ble for the art thefts, even though Von der Müh­ll is well aware of the role played by oth­ers, thanks to sur­veil­lance footage and fur­ther inves­ti­ga­tion. The detec­tive, how­ev­er, allows Bre­itwieser to main­tain his nar­ra­tive, choos­ing not to con­front him too harsh­ly in order to keep him coop­er­a­tive and open. This del­i­cate bal­ance between manip­u­la­tion and rap­port-build­ing allows Von der Müh­ll to con­tin­ue his pur­suit of the truth while keep­ing Bre­itwieser engaged in the process.

As their dis­cus­sions progress, Von der Müh­ll shifts the con­ver­sa­tion toward the stolen art­works, par­tic­u­lar­ly the Renais­sance paint­ings that have been at the heart of Bre­itwieser’s heists. It is dur­ing one of these moments that Bre­itwieser admits to steal­ing a total of six­ty-nine paint­ings, a rev­e­la­tion that great­ly expands the scope of his crimes. This dis­clo­sure marks a sig­nif­i­cant turn­ing point in the inves­ti­ga­tion, as Von der Müh­ll begins to under­stand just how exten­sive and cal­cu­lat­ed Bre­itwieser’s actions have been. The detec­tive now real­izes the urgency of recov­er­ing the stolen art, as the paint­ings could degrade with time if they remain hid­den. When asked about the cur­rent loca­tion of the art­works, Bre­itwieser ini­tial­ly claims that they were hid­den in his attic, but after a police search of his home, it becomes clear that the paint­ings are no longer there, leav­ing Bre­itwieser uncer­tain of where they may have gone.

To fur­ther expe­dite the recov­ery process, Von der Müh­ll requests that Bre­itwieser’s moth­er be allowed to vis­it him under the con­di­tion of immu­ni­ty from pros­e­cu­tion. When she arrives for ques­tion­ing, how­ev­er, she adamant­ly denies any knowl­edge of the stolen paint­ings, despite the detective’s repeat­ed ques­tions. Her vehe­ment denial puz­zles both Von der Müh­ll and Bre­itwieser, as she had like­ly been involved in some capac­i­ty with the stolen art. This inter­ac­tion deep­ens the con­fu­sion sur­round­ing the stolen items and adds more lay­ers of com­plex­i­ty to the case. As Bre­itwieser watch­es his moth­er refuse to coop­er­ate, he is left to grap­ple with the emo­tion­al tur­moil of their rela­tion­ship, while also ques­tion­ing her role in the dis­ap­pear­ance of the art. Her refusal to acknowl­edge the stolen pieces adds to the ten­sion, fur­ther com­pli­cat­ing the inves­ti­ga­tion as Von der Müh­ll seeks answers that may nev­er ful­ly come. The chap­ter leaves read­ers won­der­ing whether the truth behind the paint­ings will ever be uncov­ered, as the mys­tery sur­round­ing the art thefts deep­ens with each new rev­e­la­tion.