In Chap­ter 21 of “The Art Thief,” the pro­tag­o­nist, Bre­itwieser, is cap­ti­vat­ed by a dis­play case in the Art & His­to­ry Muse­um in Brus­sels. While ini­tial­ly unim­pressed by the medieval arti­facts, his atten­tion shifts to the arrange­ment of the items, which sug­gest that a theft has recent­ly occurred. His curios­i­ty piqued, he reads a card stat­ing “objects removed for study,” which indi­cates no cur­rent theft has tak­en place. With a Swiss Army knife in hand, Bre­itwieser pre­pares for his planned heist.

As he con­tin­ues through the muse­um, he encoun­ters a dis­play of intri­cate sil­ver­works from six­teenth-cen­tu­ry south­ern Ger­many, includ­ing chal­ices and a mag­nif­i­cent war­ship cen­ter­piece. Notic­ing a cam­er­a’s lim­it­ed vision over the dis­play, he devis­es a method to access the locked case. Draw­ing on skills acquired from a job at a hard­ware store, he effec­tive­ly defeats the lock and begins to remove the trea­sures, feel­ing exhil­a­rat­ed by the artistry, espe­cial­ly the nau­tilus chal­ices.

With the assis­tance of his part­ner Anne-Cather­ine, they man­age to con­ceal sev­er­al stun­ning items, includ­ing two nau­tilus chal­ices and a coconut tankard. How­ev­er, Bre­itwieser soon real­izes he has left behind the lid of the tankard, which prompts them to re-enter the muse­um. Uti­liz­ing Anne-Catherine’s sto­ry of a lost ear­ring, they gain entry again and seize the miss­ing lid along with two addi­tion­al gob­lets.

On their dri­ve back to France, Bre­itwieser for­mu­lates a plan to mod­i­fy their appear­ances to avoid detec­tion. He refrains from shav­ing, while Anne-Cather­ine changes her hair­style. They return to the muse­um for a sec­ond vis­it, suc­cess­ful­ly steal­ing more items, includ­ing the cov­et­ed war­ship.

When ques­tioned by a guard, they man­age to deflect sus­pi­cion by claim­ing they are head­ed to the muse­um café for lunch, a tac­tic that clev­er­ly calms any poten­tial alarm. After rent­ing a hotel room, they keep their heist under wraps while enjoy­ing some leisure time, avoid­ing muse­ums for a cou­ple of days to main­tain a low pro­file.

With each suc­ces­sive vis­it to the muse­um, they con­tin­ue to acquire sil­ver pieces, reach­ing a count of eleven stolen items in three weeks. Their thrill increas­es as they indulge in their plun­der­ing escapade, cul­mi­nat­ing in a light-heart­ed moment when Anne-Cather­ine checks on the price of a notable urn at an antique shop after their lat­est theft, only to dis­cov­er its aston­ish­ing val­ue. The chap­ter por­trays their exhil­a­rat­ing yet illic­it adven­ture, embody­ing the com­plex­i­ties of pas­sion and crime.