In Chap­ter 36 of “The Art Thief,” Anne-Cather­ine reflects on her tumul­tuous rela­tion­ship with Bre­itwieser, her part­ner in crime who has now become a source of regret. Eric Braun, her lawyer, remarks that Bre­itwieser is a sig­nif­i­cant tragedy in her life, though Anne-Cather­ine aims to move on and lead a qui­et exis­tence. She resides in a tran­quil vil­lage near Mul­house, where she secured an apart­ment for approx­i­mate­ly $100,000, sup­port­ed by a twen­ty-two-year mort­gage. Despite the police search­es of both her home and her par­ents’ res­i­dence for stolen art­work, noth­ing was found, allow­ing her to dis­creet­ly raise her son, born in 2003, while work­ing at a local hos­pi­tal.

Since her legal trou­bles, she has kept a low pro­file, avoid­ing fame and media atten­tion. She has not con­tact­ed Bre­itwieser or his fam­i­ly, nor has she remar­ried or had addi­tion­al chil­dren. Her intro­vert­ed nature echoes Breitwieser’s, and Braun believes she has found a sem­blance of peace and hap­pi­ness in her new life.

Look­ing back, almost fif­teen years have passed since they first met at a birth­day par­ty. Their youth was spent trav­el­ing the back roads of Europe, engaged in an exten­sive art theft spree where they filled her attic with stolen trea­sures. Unlike the noto­ri­ous Bon­nie and Clyde, who met a vio­lent end, Anne-Cather­ine man­aged to escape the expe­ri­ence with lit­tle penal­ty, which her lawyer describes as near­ly mirac­u­lous.

Braun empha­sizes Anne-Cather­ine’s desire to close that chap­ter of her life and for­get her past. Yet, her past is inescapable; Anne-Cather­ine has expe­ri­enced remark­able moments—holding unframed mas­ter­pieces, din­ing with stolen art in her pos­ses­sion, and wit­ness­ing breath­tak­ing land­scapes like Mont Saint-Michel and the Chartres Cathe­dral. Each trea­sured mem­o­ry sig­ni­fies her involve­ment in one of the world’s most notable art thefts, mak­ing com­plete for­get­ful­ness impos­si­ble. Instead, Anne-Cather­ine choos­es to avoid the lime­light, liv­ing in the shad­ows of a life filled with beau­ty and crime.