Chap­ter 32 delves deep­er into the after­math of Breitwieser’s art thefts, explor­ing the emo­tion­al and legal tur­moil that fol­lows his arrest. In May 2002, the sto­ry of his crimes spreads like wild­fire, cap­ti­vat­ing the media and the pub­lic. As he sits in a Swiss jail, Bre­itwieser becomes acute­ly aware of the dam­age caused by his actions, par­tic­u­lar­ly after his moth­er, Sten­gel, admits to destroy­ing much of the stolen art. This admis­sion in her police inter­ro­ga­tion only adds to the media fren­zy, with the bizarre and trag­ic dynam­ic of a mother’s involve­ment in her son’s crimes mak­ing the head­lines. Breitwieser’s con­fu­sion inten­si­fies as he watch­es the reports unfold, espe­cial­ly with his mother’s cryp­tic and painful state­ment that “there are no paint­ings, and there nev­er were.” This state­ment, while intend­ed to pro­tect her, serves to fur­ther com­pli­cate his already frag­ment­ed under­stand­ing of the sit­u­a­tion.

The media wide­ly pub­li­cizes the esti­mat­ed val­ue of the stolen art­work, plac­ing it at any­where between $1 bil­lion and $2 bil­lion, a stag­ger­ing fig­ure that Bre­itwieser strug­gles to grasp. In his mind, the col­lec­tion was nev­er worth such an astro­nom­i­cal sum, and the stark con­trast between his per­son­al under­stand­ing and the media’s por­tray­al makes him feel even more over­whelmed. Sit­ting in jail, with his crim­i­nal record and the weight of the public’s eye upon him, Bre­itwieser rejects inter­view requests, choos­ing to remain silent and avoid fur­ther atten­tion. The prospect of fac­ing mas­sive resti­tu­tion and the wrath of the art world adds to his sense of despair, know­ing that both his mother’s actions and Anne-Catherine’s pend­ing tri­al would only exac­er­bate his iso­la­tion. What once seemed like a thrilling and suc­cess­ful life of art theft now feels like an inescapable night­mare.

Amidst the mount­ing pres­sure, Bre­itwieser con­tem­plates the ulti­mate escape, attempt­ing sui­cide with den­tal floss. The over­whelm­ing lone­li­ness and the unre­lent­ing regret that he feels in his prison cell seem to push him toward the only appar­ent way out. Thank­ful­ly, his attempt is thwart­ed when a prison guard inter­venes, plac­ing him on sui­cide watch and pre­scrib­ing anti­de­pres­sants to help sta­bi­lize his mood. Although the med­ica­tion and super­vi­sion help, Breitwieser’s thoughts remain con­sumed by Anne-Cather­ine, with whom he des­per­ate­ly wants to recon­nect. He writes to her, pour­ing out his heart in let­ters filled with apolo­gies and long­ings for rec­on­cil­i­a­tion, but, despite his emo­tion­al plea, he receives no response. This silence only deep­ens his sense of aban­don­ment and despair, as the woman he thought he could build a future with remains dis­tant and unre­spon­sive.

In an unex­pect­ed twist, Breitwieser’s father reach­es out to him after eight years of silence, offer­ing words of sup­port and a much-need­ed life­line. This com­mu­ni­ca­tion with his father helps to heal old wounds, as their estranged rela­tion­ship begins to mend. Vis­its from his father become an impor­tant source of com­fort, offer­ing Bre­itwieser a small but essen­tial sem­blance of nor­mal­cy in the oth­er­wise bleak envi­ron­ment of the Swiss prison. His father’s sup­port helps Bre­itwieser adjust to his new real­i­ty, pro­vid­ing him with the strength to per­se­vere through the tough con­di­tions in prison. He slow­ly begins to adapt, learn­ing new skills from his fel­low inmates, and starts to build a more ground­ed sense of sur­vival. Despite this, the loom­ing tri­als in mul­ti­ple coun­tries still hang over him, and he finds lit­tle solace in the notion of fac­ing addi­tion­al legal bat­tles. On Feb­ru­ary 4, 2003, Bre­itwieser is escort­ed to a court­room in Gruyères, where he faces the harsh judg­ment of the jus­tice sys­tem. The tri­als that fol­low will deter­mine his fate, and the weight of his crimes against both the art world and his own life will be brought to light, leav­ing him to con­front the con­se­quences of his actions in the full glare of the pub­lic and legal scruti­ny.