In Chap­ter 36 of The Art Thief, Anne-Cather­ine looks back on the tumul­tuous rela­tion­ship she had with Bre­itwieser, a rela­tion­ship that, over time, has become a source of deep regret. Her lawyer, Eric Braun, describes Bre­itwieser as an unde­ni­able tragedy in her life, but Anne-Cather­ine is deter­mined to move on from the past. She has set­tled into a qui­eter, more peace­ful life in a small vil­lage near Mul­house, where she man­aged to buy a mod­est apart­ment for about $100,000. With a twen­ty-two-year mort­gage, she has ensured her future sta­bil­i­ty despite the many chal­lenges she’s faced. Though police once raid­ed both her home and her par­ents’ res­i­dence in search of stolen art, noth­ing was found. These events allowed her to raise her son, born in 2003, in peace while con­tin­u­ing her job at a local hos­pi­tal. Anne-Cather­ine now enjoys a life of dis­cre­tion, far removed from the chaot­ic, crime-filled exis­tence she once shared with Bre­itwieser.

Since her legal trou­bles sub­sided, Anne-Cather­ine has kept a low pro­file, inten­tion­al­ly avoid­ing atten­tion or recog­ni­tion relat­ed to her past. She has had no con­tact with Bre­itwieser or his fam­i­ly, mak­ing a con­scious choice to sev­er ties and live in seclu­sion. Addi­tion­al­ly, she has not remar­ried nor had any fur­ther chil­dren, pre­fer­ring a life of qui­et reflec­tion and inner peace. Braun, her lawyer, believes that Anne-Cather­ine has found a mea­sure of solace in her new life, despite her past. Unlike Bre­itwieser, who remains mired in con­tro­ver­sy and legal issues, Anne-Cather­ine has effec­tive­ly built a life where her crim­i­nal past no longer defines her. While she nev­er sought fame, her past as an accom­plice in some of the most high-pro­file art thefts remains a shad­ow she must con­stant­ly avoid.

Look­ing back, Anne-Cather­ine acknowl­edges that it has now been near­ly fif­teen years since she first met Bre­itwieser at a birth­day par­ty, an encounter that led her down a dan­ger­ous path. Togeth­er, they roamed the back­roads of Europe, steal­ing valu­able art­work from some of the most pres­ti­gious muse­ums. The thrill of their crime spree was intox­i­cat­ing, and their youth­ful enthu­si­asm for steal­ing trea­sures cre­at­ed an unlike­ly bond between them. Unlike infa­mous fig­ures such as Bon­nie and Clyde, who met their end in a vio­lent shootout with law enforce­ment, Anne-Cather­ine man­aged to escape the con­se­quences of her actions rel­a­tive­ly unscathed. While Bre­itwieser faced mul­ti­ple arrests and a ruined rep­u­ta­tion, she slipped under the radar, evad­ing the public’s scruti­ny. It is almost mirac­u­lous, as her lawyer describes it, how she avoid­ed the dev­as­tat­ing legal con­se­quences of her past. Anne-Catherine’s deci­sion to leave that life behind was not an easy one, but she’s suc­cess­ful­ly embraced a qui­eter exis­tence, choos­ing to step away from the world of theft and deceit that once con­sumed her.

How­ev­er, despite her best efforts to dis­tance her­self from her past, the mem­o­ries still linger in Anne-Catherine’s mind. She can nev­er com­plete­ly erase the moments when she held price­less, unframed paint­ings in her hands or when she dined in the com­pa­ny of stolen art. These mem­o­ries are inter­twined with the beau­ty of Europe, where she and Bre­itwieser mar­veled at land­marks like Mont Saint-Michel and the Chartres Cathe­dral, moments where the allure of art met the chaos of their crim­i­nal lives. Though she choos­es not to dwell on these mem­o­ries, they remain with her, a con­stant reminder of her involve­ment in one of the most noto­ri­ous art theft rings in his­to­ry. As much as she has tried to move for­ward and leave her past behind, the specter of her actions is impos­si­ble to erase com­plete­ly. Anne-Cather­ine under­stands that she will always car­ry these mem­o­ries, but instead of allow­ing them to con­sume her, she has embraced the qui­eter life that now defines her, one that bal­ances peace with the weight of the choic­es she made long ago.