Chap­ter 13 of The Art Thief fur­ther explores Bre­itwieser’s obses­sion with art, focus­ing on his belief that paint­ings must be framed to be tru­ly appre­ci­at­ed. He per­ceives frames as a cru­cial part of art’s dig­ni­ty, akin to cloth­ing on a fig­ure; with­out them, paint­ings seem “undressed” and incom­plete. This fas­ci­na­tion with fram­ing leads him to dis­cov­er a small, charm­ing arti­san fram­ing shop in Mul­house run by Chris­t­ian Meich­ler. Meich­ler, an enthu­si­as­tic art lover, imme­di­ate­ly strikes up a con­nec­tion with Bre­itwieser, who finds com­fort in the cama­raderie and shared pas­sion for fine art. As they con­verse about their mutu­al admi­ra­tion for var­i­ous works, Bre­itwieser begins to form a deep­er bond with Meich­ler, feel­ing a sense of refuge from his per­son­al strug­gles, espe­cial­ly the emo­tion­al chaos caused by his par­ents’ sep­a­ra­tion. Through their shared enthu­si­asm for art, Bre­itwieser sees in Meich­ler some­one who under­stands his need for beau­ty and cre­ativ­i­ty, pro­vid­ing a sub­tle escape from the anx­i­eties of his life.

Meichler’s insights into Bre­itwieser are a blend of admi­ra­tion and con­cern. He views Bre­itwieser as a sen­si­tive, dis­cern­ing indi­vid­ual with a refined aes­thet­ic taste, qual­i­ties that are also rec­og­nized by the psy­chother­a­pist Schmidt, who per­ceives Breitwieser’s love for beau­ti­ful objects as indica­tive of his big heart. At the same time, Schmidt and anoth­er psy­chol­o­gist, Luci­enne Schnei­der, diag­nose Bre­itwieser with nar­cis­sism and obses­sive behav­ior, rec­og­niz­ing that these traits stem from deep­er emo­tion­al issues linked to his attach­ment to art. Schneider’s eval­u­a­tion sug­gests that Breitwieser’s crim­i­nal acts are not dri­ven by greed alone, but by a need to com­pen­sate for his emo­tion­al dis­tress. She argues that his obses­sion with art is a cop­ing mech­a­nism for the under­ly­ing psy­cho­log­i­cal pain he expe­ri­ences, mak­ing his art thefts not just an expres­sion of desire, but also a way to escape from his unre­solved emo­tion­al con­flicts. The com­plex­i­ty of Bre­itwieser’s char­ac­ter is thus revealed, mak­ing his actions more under­stand­able while still deeply trou­bling.

As their rela­tion­ship deep­ens, Bre­itwieser and Meich­ler share a pro­found admi­ra­tion for Euro­pean oil paint­ings, espe­cial­ly those from the Renais­sance and Baroque peri­ods. Meich­ler con­sid­ers these works to be more than mere objects—they rep­re­sent dreams, poet­ic ideals, and aspi­ra­tions that tran­scend time and place. Bre­itwieser, while ini­tial­ly reserved, opens up about his love for these paint­ings, reveal­ing his gen­uine pas­sion for their crafts­man­ship and aes­thet­ic beau­ty. How­ev­er, Breitwieser’s fas­ci­na­tion with art goes beyond a mere appre­ci­a­tion for cre­ativ­i­ty; he becomes obsessed with acquir­ing it, even at the cost of his integri­ty. He ini­tial­ly lies to Meich­ler about his con­nec­tion to the works, claim­ing they were bought at auc­tions, rather than admit­ting that they were stolen. Despite these small decep­tions, Breitwieser’s gen­uine enthu­si­asm for art shines through, and the two men form a bond over their shared under­stand­ing of art’s val­ue, not just finan­cial­ly but emo­tion­al­ly. How­ev­er, the friend­ship starts to become increas­ing­ly com­pli­cat­ed as Bre­itwieser brings in stolen pieces for fram­ing, includ­ing an elder­ly woman’s por­trait. Meichler’s trust in Bre­itwieser grows, but so does the under­ly­ing dan­ger, as Breitwieser’s deceit begins to spi­ral, and his crim­i­nal behav­ior esca­lates.

As the rela­tion­ship between Bre­itwieser and Meich­ler deep­ens, the ten­sion begins to mount. Bre­itwieser starts to lie more fre­quent­ly, cov­er­ing up the truth of his actions to main­tain the frag­ile friend­ship he has with Meich­ler. He claims to be too ner­vous to trans­port paint­ings, play­ing on Meich­ler’s trust to con­ceal his thefts. Mean­while, Meich­ler remains bliss­ful­ly unaware of the full extent of Bre­itwieser’s crim­i­nal activ­i­ties, find­ing only the love of art in his young friend. This decep­tive dynam­ic con­tin­ues, high­light­ing the com­plex nature of their rela­tion­ship. Bre­itwieser, feel­ing more com­fort­able with Meich­ler, starts to take greater risks, test­ing the lim­its of his new friend­ship. How­ev­er, Meichler’s warn­ings about the dan­gers of becom­ing too obsessed with art begin to ring true. While Meich­ler sens­es the mount­ing risks involved in Breitwieser’s behav­ior, he can­not ful­ly grasp the extent of the trou­ble that lies ahead. The chap­ter under­scores the frag­ile bal­ance between their friend­ship and the impend­ing con­se­quences of Breitwieser’s actions. As their con­nec­tion grows, so does the ten­sion, as Meich­ler remains unaware of the illic­it nature of the art that Bre­itwieser con­tin­ues to acquire.