In his for­ma­tive years as a thief, Bre­itwieser scoured muse­ums, pil­fer­ing a range of objects from the medieval peri­od to ear­ly mod­ernism, dri­ven by a spon­ta­neous desire for what cap­ti­vat­ed him. While he ini­tial­ly found thrill in diverse artifacts—especially weapons and bronze items—his enthu­si­asm often waned. Now, along­side Anne-Cather­ine in their attic, he con­tem­plates the qual­i­ties that allure them to spe­cif­ic pieces of art, engag­ing also in sim­i­lar dis­cus­sions with Meich­ler at the frame shop, and fur­ther refin­ing his pref­er­ences through stud­ies in his library. He has iden­ti­fied a par­tic­u­lar affin­i­ty for north­ern Euro­pean art­works from the six­teenth and sev­en­teenth cen­turies, show­ing new­found ded­i­ca­tion with each theft.

The ratio­nale for his aes­thet­ic incli­na­tions remains ambigu­ous. Art’s exis­tence chal­lenges Dar­win­ian prin­ci­ples of nat­ur­al selec­tion, which typ­i­cal­ly pri­or­i­tize the sur­vival of the fittest, as art demands resources that do not direct­ly con­tribute to sur­vival essen­tials. Yet, art is omnipresent across cul­tures, pos­si­bly serv­ing as a mat­ing sig­nal or emerg­ing from a state of leisure once sur­vival pres­sures were alle­vi­at­ed post-evo­lu­tion. Human cre­ativ­i­ty flour­ished with reduced threats, unleash­ing imag­i­na­tive explo­rations that sym­bol­ize free­dom.

Soci­o­log­i­cal stud­ies reveal a glob­al pref­er­ence for cer­tain artis­tic themes, such as land­scapes fea­tur­ing trees and water, with blue being the most favored col­or. Artis­tic attrac­tion is sub­jec­tive, influ­enced by indi­vid­ual essence and cul­tur­al con­text. Neu­ro­sci­en­tif­ic research by Semir Zeki has pin­point­ed the medi­al orbital-frontal cor­tex as the source of aes­thet­ic response, sug­gest­ing that beau­ty resides in brain activ­i­ty.

Bre­itwieser is par­tic­u­lar­ly enchant­ed by oil paint­ings renowned for their vibrant, lumi­nous qual­i­ties stem­ming from flax seed and their his­tor­i­cal sig­nif­i­cance dur­ing the Renais­sance, com­pared to the more mut­ed styles of south­ern regions. He finds more emo­tion­al res­o­nance in less­er-known artists than in cel­e­brat­ed fig­ures like Tit­ian or Da Vin­ci, whom he per­ceives as con­strained by com­mer­cial patron­age.

His pref­er­ence for “cab­i­net paint­ings,” which are small­er and eas­i­er to con­ceal, reflects an appre­ci­a­tion for the aspi­ra­tional, hand­craft­ed beau­ty pre­ced­ing indus­tri­al­iza­tion. Bre­itwieser also sal­vages antiques like tobac­co box­es and wine gob­lets, admir­ing their beau­ty and intri­cate crafts­man­ship before mass pro­duc­tion dimin­ished arti­sanal qual­i­ty. For him, the era right before automa­tion rep­re­sent­ed the pin­na­cle of human cre­ative expres­sion, with his attic hous­ing these cher­ished rem­nants of a past era amidst the relent­less advance­ment of time.