In Chap­ter 27 of The Art Thief, the nar­ra­tive immers­es read­ers in a tense atmos­phere as Bre­itwieser faces the con­se­quences of his actions, this time behind bars at a Swiss police sta­tion. The sto­ry begins on Novem­ber 21, 2001, with the arrival of Inspec­tor Roland Meier, who has been assigned to inter­ro­gate Bre­itwieser. The two men, both from Alsace, share a com­mon dialect, which ini­tial­ly cre­ates a sense of famil­iar­i­ty, but soon, their con­ver­sa­tion becomes a cold and cal­cu­lat­ed inter­ro­ga­tion. Meier, famil­iar with Breitwieser’s pre­vi­ous arrest, per­ceives him as a pet­ty crim­i­nal and doesn’t sus­pect any deep­er involve­ment in art theft. How­ev­er, as the ques­tion­ing con­tin­ues, Meier’s view begins to evolve, rec­og­niz­ing the com­plex­i­ty of Breitwieser’s role in the ongo­ing art thefts. This shift in per­cep­tion sets the stage for a deep­er inves­ti­ga­tion into the thief’s back­ground and the far-reach­ing impli­ca­tions of his actions.

The pri­ma­ry focus of this inter­ro­ga­tion is a theft from the Wag­n­er Muse­um, specif­i­cal­ly a rare his­tor­i­cal bugle that had been stolen from the muse­um. Despite the mount­ing pres­sure from Meier, Bre­itwieser con­tin­ues to deny his involve­ment in the crime, main­tain­ing that he had no hand in the theft. The inter­ro­ga­tion reveals cru­cial details, includ­ing the dis­cov­ery of the theft by Esther Jaerg, the only employ­ee present at the time. Jaerg noticed the theft after a man in a dis­tinc­tive long green coat had left the muse­um. Fur­ther­more, a near­by dog walk­er came for­ward, claim­ing to have seen a sus­pi­cious indi­vid­ual in the vicin­i­ty just before the theft was dis­cov­ered. Despite these find­ings, no con­crete evi­dence links Bre­itwieser direct­ly to the crime, leav­ing him with a faint sense of hope, as the author­i­ties still lack irrefutable proof of his involve­ment.

As the inter­ro­ga­tion con­tin­ues, the pres­sure on Bre­itwieser increas­es, yet he clev­er­ly nav­i­gates the sit­u­a­tion. He is aware that no phys­i­cal evi­dence con­nects him to the crime, which gives him a sense of tem­po­rary relief. With a glim­mer of hope, Bre­itwieser con­sid­ers reach­ing out to his accom­plice, Anne-Cather­ine, whom he believes might be able to return the stolen bugle and help exon­er­ate him. How­ev­er, Breitwieser’s sit­u­a­tion becomes more dire when he is moved to a high-secu­ri­ty cell, severe­ly lim­it­ing his abil­i­ty to com­mu­ni­cate with any­one out­side the prison. His iso­la­tion and anx­i­ety grow as he faces the real­i­ty of the sit­u­a­tion. Despite his ear­li­er con­fi­dence, he is now trapped, vul­ner­a­ble, and deeply aware of the con­se­quences of his actions. The sense of guilt and regret begins to set­tle in, as he is con­front­ed by the weight of his crim­i­nal past.

Mean­while, Meier’s inves­ti­ga­tion pro­gress­es, and his focus shifts to the broad­er scope of Breitwieser’s thefts. The inspec­tor begins to sus­pect that Bre­itwieser may not just be a small-time thief but rather a key play­er in an exten­sive net­work of art crim­i­nals. The real­iza­tion dawns on Meier that Breitwieser’s crimes extend far beyond what was ini­tial­ly believed, lead­ing to the dis­cov­ery of a sophis­ti­cat­ed art theft oper­a­tion span­ning across mul­ti­ple coun­tries. The inspector’s per­cep­tion of Bre­itwieser under­goes a sig­nif­i­cant shift, and he now believes that the thief may be part of a larg­er, well-orga­nized crim­i­nal enter­prise. This real­iza­tion prompts a more aggres­sive inves­ti­ga­tion strat­e­gy, as Meier seeks judi­cial approval to extend his efforts, includ­ing pur­su­ing inter­na­tion­al war­rants for Breitwieser’s crimes. The inves­ti­ga­tion inten­si­fies as author­i­ties pre­pare to broad­en their search for the stolen pieces, with law enforce­ment agen­cies from var­i­ous coun­tries get­ting involved.

Through­out this peri­od, Bre­itwieser con­tin­ues to reflect on his past actions, and the mount­ing pres­sure from law enforce­ment weighs heav­i­ly on him. The real­iza­tion that his art thefts have caught the atten­tion of author­i­ties world­wide fills him with a sense of dread and remorse. Despite his pre­vi­ous feel­ings of supe­ri­or­i­ty and suc­cess, he now faces the harsh real­i­ty that his crim­i­nal empire is crum­bling. His sense of iso­la­tion deep­ens as he remains cut off from the out­side world, unable to com­mu­ni­cate with any­one, includ­ing Anne-Cather­ine. As the inves­ti­ga­tion moves for­ward, the stolen art­works become cen­tral to the case, and the stakes grow high­er for Bre­itwieser. The once con­fi­dent thief is now trapped in a sit­u­a­tion that feels increas­ing­ly out of his con­trol, and the prospect of a lengthy prison sen­tence looms over him. With each pass­ing day, his hopes of escap­ing the legal con­se­quences of his actions dimin­ish, and he is forced to con­front the grav­i­ty of his choic­es.