Chap­ter 10 of The Art Thief fol­lows Bre­itwieser on a mem­o­rable and dar­ing adven­ture, one that inter­twines his birth­day cel­e­bra­tions with anoth­er art heist. On the morn­ing of his twen­ty-fourth birth­day, Octo­ber 1, 1995, he embarks on a trip to New Cas­tle in Ger­many, accom­pa­nied by his moth­er, Anne-Cather­ine, and her dachs­hund. The scenic dri­ve through the pic­turesque Black For­est is a stark con­trast to the thrill that awaits him. Their des­ti­na­tion, the his­toric Sotheby’s auc­tion pre­view, is held in a majes­tic cas­tle with 106 rooms, each filled with auc­tion pieces wait­ing to be sold. Although Breitwieser’s atten­tion is imme­di­ate­ly drawn to a spe­cif­ic six­teenth-cen­tu­ry por­trait of Sibylle of Cleves by Lucas Cranach the Younger, he also feels a sub­tle ten­sion. This unease stems from the fact that, despite being so close, he and his moth­er rarely dis­cuss his crim­i­nal activ­i­ties, and their time togeth­er often avoids any men­tion of the art heist world he is so deeply entrenched in.

As they move through the cas­tle, Breitwieser’s mind oscil­lates between the won­der of the art­work before him and the unspo­ken ten­sion with­in his fam­i­ly. His rela­tion­ship with his moth­er, Mireille Sten­gel, is strained—though they live under the same roof, emo­tion­al dis­tance has grown between them over time. While she avoids pub­lic scruti­ny and media atten­tion, refus­ing inter­views, it’s clear that she remains large­ly unaware or per­haps choos­es to turn a blind eye to her son’s ille­gal endeav­ors. Out­side, she remains with the dog while Bre­itwieser and Anne-Cather­ine explore the mag­nif­i­cent exhi­bi­tion halls. The aura of the paint­ing draws Breitwieser’s focus completely—its exquis­ite details and rich col­ors pull him in, but the plex­i­glass dome and vig­i­lant secu­ri­ty guards remind him that steal­ing this work will require pre­ci­sion and a care­ful­ly exe­cut­ed plan. As they study the secu­ri­ty set­up, it becomes evi­dent that tak­ing the paint­ing will not be easy, but Breitwieser’s mind begins to strate­gize, con­stant­ly weigh­ing the risks against the rewards of such a dar­ing theft.

Despite the dan­gers of a high-stakes heist, Breitwieser’s prag­mat­ic side always keeps him ground­ed, and humor helps him cope with the ten­sion. The cou­ple dis­cuss­es their options, ini­tial­ly decid­ing that the secu­ri­ty mea­sures in place would make it unwise to risk such a high-pro­file theft. How­ev­er, as the hours pass, the guards’ vig­i­lance seems to wane, and an oppor­tu­ni­ty begins to take shape. When the exhi­bi­tion room starts to thin out with few­er peo­ple, and the guards appear less atten­tive, the cou­ple returns for a sec­ond vis­it, wait­ing for the per­fect moment to strike. Bre­itwieser, dri­ven by a mix of excite­ment and cau­tion, sees the chance to act and, with swift pre­ci­sion, takes the por­trait. He hides it inside his auc­tion cat­a­log, attempt­ing to mask the theft with­in the chaos of the room.

In his hasty escape, Bre­itwieser makes a misstep—he knocks over the easel that held the paint­ing, and the loud noise echoes across the room. For a brief moment, he antic­i­pates imme­di­ate detec­tion, but to his sur­prise, the dis­trac­tion goes unno­ticed, and the chat­ter around them con­tin­ues with­out sus­pi­cion. Both he and Anne-Cather­ine quick­ly regain their com­po­sure, walk­ing toward the exit with pur­pose­ful strides. Once out­side, they reunite with Mireille, who remains bliss­ful­ly unaware of the crime that has just unfold­ed. With their prize now secured in their pos­ses­sion, the cou­ple expe­ri­ences a rush of exhil­a­ra­tion, but also an over­whelm­ing sense of dis­be­lief. What had seemed like an impos­si­ble act just moments before has now been com­plet­ed suc­cess­ful­ly. As they head home, the nor­mal­i­ty of fam­i­ly din­ner with Breitwieser’s grand­par­ents con­trasts sharply with the hid­den trea­sure now stashed away, mark­ing the day as one of both per­son­al and crim­i­nal sig­nif­i­cance. Breitwieser’s birth­day is now for­ev­er linked to this dar­ing heist, an event that solid­i­fies his obses­sion with art theft and the thrill of the chase.