Chap­ter 28 of The Art Thief explores the deep­en­ing emo­tion­al and psy­cho­log­i­cal strain that Bre­itwieser expe­ri­ences as he waits for the approval of an inter­na­tion­al search war­rant, fol­low­ing his arrest for art theft. The process is slow and filled with uncer­tain­ty, con­tribut­ing to his grow­ing feel­ings of iso­la­tion. The only com­mu­ni­ca­tion he has with the out­side world is a sin­gle phone call to the French embassy, which offers no help or advice, leav­ing him to grap­ple with his sit­u­a­tion in silence. As he waits for updates, his mind fix­ates on a let­ter he hopes to receive from his girl­friend, Anne-Cather­ine. He believes that she might have over­heard some­thing impor­tant before his arrest, and the uncer­tain­ty of whether or not he will hear from her only height­ens his sense of aban­don­ment and emo­tion­al dis­tress. This time of wait­ing forces him to reflect on the grav­i­ty of his sit­u­a­tion, and it becomes clear that his iso­la­tion is tak­ing a sig­nif­i­cant toll on his men­tal health.

Despite his ini­tial resis­tance to speak, the mount­ing pres­sure even­tu­al­ly forces Bre­itwieser to open up dur­ing his inter­ro­ga­tion by Inspec­tor Meier. Under the pres­sure of the ques­tion­ing, he begins to fab­ri­cate a sto­ry about his vis­it to the Richard Wag­n­er Muse­um. He claims that his inter­est in clas­si­cal music was what prompt­ed him to vis­it the muse­um and that his actions were dri­ven by a desire for knowl­edge, not theft. How­ev­er, as the inter­ro­ga­tion con­tin­ues, his fab­ri­cat­ed expla­na­tions start to unrav­el. Bre­itwieser also offers a con­trived excuse for the miss­ing train tick­et, hop­ing to cov­er up the dis­crep­an­cies in his sto­ry. His con­fes­sions grow more detailed, and he begins to describe his theft of a bugle, sug­gest­ing that it was meant as a Christ­mas gift for his moth­er and insist­ing that he nev­er intend­ed to sell it. As the inter­ro­ga­tion inten­si­fies, it becomes increas­ing­ly clear that his ver­sion of events is full of holes, and his attempts to down­play the sever­i­ty of his actions only seem to rein­force the prosecutor’s case against him.

In an effort to mit­i­gate the con­se­quences of his crimes, Bre­itwieser reveals the loca­tion of the stolen bugle, claim­ing it is hid­den in his mother’s home. Hop­ing to avoid fur­ther legal reper­cus­sions for both him­self and his fam­i­ly, he express­es a desire to return the stolen item to the muse­um. He believes that this ges­ture will help reduce the pun­ish­ment for his actions and alle­vi­ate the pres­sure on his fam­i­ly. With this in mind, he writes let­ters to both Anne-Cather­ine and his moth­er, plead­ing for their assis­tance in return­ing the item. Despite his appeals, he holds lit­tle hope that they will respond or take action, which only deep­ens his sense of help­less­ness. His deci­sion to reach out to those close to him reflects his des­per­a­tion to cor­rect the sit­u­a­tion, even though he remains uncer­tain about the out­come.

As the inves­ti­ga­tion unfolds, the inter­na­tion­al search war­rant is final­ly approved, and law enforce­ment, led by Inspec­tor Meier, arrives at his mother’s house. Ini­tial­ly, Mireille Sten­gel denies any knowl­edge of the stolen art, insist­ing that Bre­itwieser nev­er brought any­thing home. The offi­cers pro­ceed with the search, and despite Stengel’s claims, they inspect the attic for hid­den items. How­ev­er, much to their dis­ap­point­ment, they find nothing—no stolen items, no bugle, and no evi­dence link­ing Sten­gel to the thefts. This moment rep­re­sents a crit­i­cal turn­ing point in the nar­ra­tive, as the fail­ure to locate the stolen art at his mother’s house leaves Bre­itwieser with a mount­ing sense of dread. His ear­li­er belief that the art would be returned to the muse­um now seems increas­ing­ly unre­al­is­tic. The chap­ter delves into Breitwieser’s emo­tion­al tur­moil, cap­tur­ing his strug­gle between try­ing to manip­u­late the sit­u­a­tion and fac­ing the inevitable con­se­quences of his actions. As his world unrav­els, the ten­sion between his past and present self inten­si­fies, under­scor­ing the com­plex nature of his char­ac­ter and the toll that his crimes have tak­en on him and those around him.