In a hum­ble house resem­bling a pale cube of stuc­coed con­crete, adorned with small win­dows and cov­ered by a steep, red-tiled roof, lives a young cou­ple amidst the sub­ur­ban sprawl of Mul­house, an indus­tri­al city in east­ern France. The house, sur­round­ed by sim­i­lar homes, offers lit­tle aes­thet­ic appeal typ­i­cal of the broad­er nation. Most of the liv­ing space is on the ground floor, but a nar­row stair­way leads to a low-ceilinged liv­ing area and bed­room tucked under the rafters, kept locked with per­ma­nent­ly closed shut­ters.

The cou­ple’s bed­room fea­tures a majes­tic four-poster bed, draped in opu­lent gold velour cur­tains and sur­round­ed by plush red satin sheets and cush­ions. Upon wak­ing, Bre­itwieser often gazes at his prized ivory carv­ing of *Adam and Eve*, show­cas­ing the artist’s intri­cate detail­ing. He also trea­sures addi­tion­al ivory fig­urines: Diana, the Roman god­dess, and Cather­ine of Alexan­dria, each crowned by a lumi­nous spark that bright­ens his morn­ings.

The bed­side table boasts remark­able items, includ­ing a pol­ished gold­en tobac­co box com­mis­sioned by Napoleon and a pris­mat­ic flower vase craft­ed by Émile Gal­lé, each hold­ing sto­ries from the past. A lav­ish sil­ver gob­let, along­side an array of tobac­co tins, bronzes, and porce­lain fig­urines, trans­forms his night­stand into a minia­ture muse­um.

On Anne-Catherine’s side of the bed lies anoth­er night table, com­ple­ment­ed by a large armoire, a desk, and a dress­er, all over­flow­ing with sil­ver plat­ters, gild­ed tea sets, and eclec­tic weapon­ry. The sec­ond room hous­es a broad­er col­lec­tion: a wood­en altar­piece, stained-glass win­dow, and var­i­ous musi­cal instruments—each piece illus­trat­ing the cou­ple’s unquench­able thirst for art and his­to­ry.

Over­flow­ing with trea­sures, the couple’s haven extends to arm­chairs, win­dowsills, and clos­ets filled with wrist­watch­es, tapes­tries, and medieval arti­facts. Joy­ful chaos sur­rounds them, yet the true mar­vel resides in their art col­lec­tion. The walls are adorned with oil paint­ings from the six­teenth and sev­en­teenth cen­turies by renowned mas­ters like Cranach and Dür­er, cre­at­ing a vibrant tapes­try of col­or and life that engulfs the small space.

Art jour­nal­ists esti­mate their entire trea­sure trove to be worth as much as two bil­lion dol­lars, pre­sent­ing a real­i­ty that tran­scends mere fan­ta­sy. In the con­fines of their dis­creet attic, they have built a remark­able world filled with beau­ty, a lit­er­al trea­sure chest of art and his­to­ry tucked away in a non­de­script house.