In Chap­ter 34 of The Art Thief, the nar­ra­tive shifts to the legal after­math of Stéphane Breitwieser’s exten­sive art thefts. The sto­ry starts with the legal process, which is com­plet­ed quick­ly, with a deci­sion being reached in just two and a half hours. The court pri­mar­i­ly focus­es on the method used for theft rather than the spe­cif­ic items that were stolen. Despite the high val­ue of the stolen art­work, Breitwieser’s crime is cat­e­go­rized as sim­ple theft, as no vio­lence was involved. This leads to a four-year prison sen­tence for Bre­itwieser, along with fines amount­ing to hun­dreds of thou­sands of dol­lars owed to the muse­ums that suf­fered loss­es. He is frus­trat­ed by the out­come, par­tic­u­lar­ly because he had hoped that his coop­er­a­tion with the author­i­ties would lead to a more lenient sen­tence, but his efforts to com­ply seem to have been insuf­fi­cient in earn­ing him any sig­nif­i­cant favor in the eyes of the law.

While serv­ing his time in a Swiss deten­tion cen­ter, Bre­itwieser faces the harsh real­i­ties of prison life. He spends his days dis­man­tling com­put­ers in exchange for a min­i­mal wage, all of which goes direct­ly to pay­ing his fines. Vis­its from his father pro­vide some com­fort, but they are not enough to alle­vi­ate the strain of being incar­cer­at­ed. The media’s exag­ger­at­ed por­tray­al of his stolen art pieces only adds to his emo­tion­al tur­moil. Although part of him feels a strange pride in his past crimes being so wide­ly rec­og­nized, the rest of the atten­tion leaves him feel­ing con­flict­ed. Despite the tough cir­cum­stances, Bre­itwieser dis­cov­ers an unex­pect­ed inter­est in ping-pong, a pas­time that offers him some dis­trac­tion, but his strug­gles with per­son­al hygiene per­sist, and he is often embar­rassed by his sit­u­a­tion. Through­out his time in prison, he con­tem­plates his choic­es and the irrepara­ble dam­age they have caused to his life and rep­u­ta­tion.

Even­tu­al­ly, Bre­itwieser is trans­ferred to a more crowd­ed and uncom­fort­able prison in Stras­bourg, France. The liv­ing con­di­tions are far worse than those he endured in Switzer­land, and his emo­tion­al state wors­ens as he learns that his moth­er has lost her job and their fam­i­ly home is being sold. The news of these per­son­al loss­es only adds to the immense pres­sure he is feel­ing. Dur­ing his time in this new prison, Bre­itwieser meets with French inves­ti­ga­tor Michèle Lis-Schaal, who con­fronts him with con­tra­dic­tions in the tes­ti­monies of both him­self and Anne-Cather­ine, his for­mer accom­plice. A brief encounter with Anne-Cather­ine brings up feel­ings of con­fu­sion and pain, as she remains silent dur­ing their inter­ac­tion, and he learns that she is no longer allowed to con­tact him. The dis­tance between them grows as Anne-Cather­ine con­tin­ues with her life, while Bre­itwieser feels trapped by his past.

The chap­ter takes an unex­pect­ed turn when Anne-Catherine’s tes­ti­mo­ny reveals a shock­ing detail: she is now the moth­er of a nine­teen-month-old child. The rev­e­la­tion dev­as­tates Bre­itwieser, as the child is not his, but the prod­uct of Anne-Catherine’s rela­tion­ship with anoth­er man that began after his arrest. This emo­tion­al blow immo­bi­lizes him, as he con­tem­plates the mag­ni­tude of his lost con­nec­tion with her and the life that could have been. The betray­al cuts deeply, and Bre­itwieser is forced to con­front the painful truth that his actions have led to the dis­so­lu­tion of every­thing he once held dear. The chap­ter ends with Bre­itwieser in a state of con­fu­sion and despair, as he is con­front­ed by the harsh real­i­ty of his deci­sions. The reper­cus­sions of his past have caught up with him, and the pain of los­ing his part­ner, along with the dis­cov­ery of the child, leaves him strug­gling to find mean­ing in a life that seems to be falling apart. This chap­ter under­scores the deep emo­tion­al toll of Breitwieser’s crim­i­nal activ­i­ties, show­ing how the con­se­quences of his actions extend far beyond his own life, affect­ing those he loved and once cared for. The ongo­ing strug­gle with guilt, regret, and betray­al becomes a key theme in his jour­ney through the com­plex after­math of his art thefts.