In Chap­ter 17 of “The Art Thief,” Bre­itwieser reflects on the audac­i­ty of steal­ing the icon­ic paint­ing, the Madeleine, dur­ing a vis­it to the Roy­al Château of Blois. He and his accom­plice, Anne-Cather­ine, had ini­tial­ly dis­missed the idea due to the heavy secu­ri­ty and the pres­ence of tourists. How­ev­er, the allure of the paint­ing lured them back for one final look before clo­sure. The jour­ney across France, under­tak­en at reck­less speeds, had been a con­cert­ed effort for both, espe­cial­ly since Anne-Cather­ine did not dri­ve.

Upon their return, the atmos­phere in the exhi­bi­tion room was chaot­ic with guards and vis­i­tors, but Bre­itwieser noticed an oppor­tu­ni­ty: a moment when the guards were dis­tract­ed, engrossed in their own dis­cus­sions. He observed the unique dou­ble frame of the paint­ing but real­ized he had no time to devise a full plan; he would have to act on instinct.

Bre­itwieser dis­cov­ered that the inner frame was secured with just a few strips of vel­cro. With one quick motion, he tore it free, the sound blend­ing into the room’s noise. He quick­ly con­cealed the paint­ing in his pants, awk­ward and con­spic­u­ous, but man­aged to hide it from the guards by turn­ing his back. As he stepped towards the exit, he expe­ri­enced a rush of adren­a­line, liken­ing the heist to the del­i­cate act of thread­ing a nee­dle, an anal­o­gy root­ed in his exten­sive expe­ri­ence, hav­ing near­ly com­plet­ed his one hun­dredth theft in the art world.

Through­out the day, Bre­itwieser main­tained a relent­less pace, steal­ing three times a month along­side Anne-Cather­ine. Ear­li­er that day, they had stolen from the Château de Cham­bord, uti­liz­ing a crafty method to unlock dis­play cas­es. By lever­ag­ing a Swiss Army knife, he was able to lift the lock­ing mech­a­nism, allow­ing him to snatch valu­able items, includ­ing a fold­ing fan and tobac­co box­es, before they made their way to seize the Madeleine. This heist, while daunt­ing for many, felt almost rou­tine for the sea­soned thieves, empha­siz­ing their grow­ing audac­i­ty and skill in the art of theft.