Chap­ter 17 of The Art Thief takes the read­er deep­er into the psy­che of Bre­itwieser, as he embarks on anoth­er auda­cious heist. This time, the tar­get is the icon­ic paint­ing of Madeleine, housed in the Roy­al Château of Blois. Ini­tial­ly, he and Anne-Cather­ine had dis­missed the idea of steal­ing it, giv­en the heavy secu­ri­ty and con­stant stream of vis­i­tors. How­ev­er, as time passed, the lure of this mas­ter­piece proved too pow­er­ful, and they found them­selves drawn back. Their jour­ney across France, marked by reck­less speeds and height­ened ten­sion, reflect­ed their des­per­a­tion and deter­mi­na­tion. Bre­itwieser, dri­ving at high speeds, was intent on com­plet­ing the heist, while Anne-Cather­ine, who did not dri­ve, expe­ri­enced the anx­i­ety of the jour­ney, adding to the com­plex­i­ty of their mis­sion. The risks involved were greater, but so was their resolve to suc­ceed, despite the immense obsta­cles they faced.

Upon arrival at the château, the atmos­phere was chaot­ic, with guards mov­ing about and tourists tak­ing in the sights. Bre­itwieser, how­ev­er, saw an oppor­tu­ni­ty amidst the noise and bus­tle, as the guards engaged in their own dis­cus­sions. The dis­play, show­cas­ing the famous paint­ing, was sur­round­ed by secu­ri­ty, yet Bre­itwieser noticed a brief win­dow of dis­trac­tion. It was in this moment that he real­ized he had to act quick­ly, with no time to metic­u­lous­ly plan his every move. His sharp instincts, honed over years of com­mit­ting sim­i­lar crimes, kicked in. He decid­ed to take the chance, under­stand­ing that the adren­a­line of the moment would give him the speed and stealth nec­es­sary to suc­ceed. With the clock tick­ing, he pre­pared him­self for the heist, ful­ly aware that any wrong move could lead to their cap­ture.

The paint­ing, framed in an intri­cate dou­ble frame, was sur­pris­ing­ly easy to detach, secured only by a few strips of Vel­cro. Bre­itwieser swift­ly removed the frame, blend­ing the noise of his actions into the gen­er­al com­mo­tion around him. With­out hes­i­ta­tion, he tucked the pre­cious paint­ing under his cloth­ing, hid­ing it awk­ward­ly in his pants. As he turned his back to the guards, Bre­itwieser knew this was a crit­i­cal moment—if the guards noticed, it could spell dis­as­ter. Yet, he car­ried on, walk­ing towards the exit with a rush of exhil­a­ra­tion. For him, the theft of the Madeleine was not just about the art; it was about the chal­lenge, the dan­ger, and the skill it took to pull it off. He likened the act to thread­ing a nee­dle, an anal­o­gy reflect­ing the pre­ci­sion and skill required, a task he had per­fect­ed over time. The adren­a­line rush, height­ened by the weight of his near­ly 100th theft, was unde­ni­able.

The theft of the Madeleine was just anoth­er day in the life of Bre­itwieser and Anne-Cather­ine, who had now made a habit of steal­ing mul­ti­ple times a month. Ear­li­er in the day, they had suc­cess­ful­ly stolen from the Château de Cham­bord, using the same metic­u­lous meth­ods that had become their trade­mark. Bre­itwieser had used his trusty Swiss Army knife to bypass a locked dis­play case, mak­ing off with sev­er­al valu­able items, includ­ing a rare fold­ing fan and tobac­co box­es. Each suc­cess­ful heist added to their grow­ing sense of con­fi­dence, mak­ing what once seemed like risky endeav­ors feel almost rou­tine. Their grow­ing audac­i­ty in com­mit­ting thefts from some of the most pres­ti­gious loca­tions was only increas­ing. As they con­tin­ued their spree across France, Breitwieser’s exper­tise in exe­cut­ing these thefts was becom­ing more refined. This con­fi­dence led them to the Madeleine, and the suc­cess of this heist only fueled their desire for more. For Bre­itwieser, it was no longer about the art­work itself; it was about the thrill and the skill of steal­ing, some­thing that had now become an obses­sion. The increas­ing fre­quen­cy of these crimes reflect­ed not just their skill but their deep­en­ing immer­sion in a life of crime, one that seemed impos­si­ble to escape.