In Chap­ter 37 of “The Art Thief,” Anne-Cather­ine reveals to Swiss art detec­tive Von der Müh­ll that she doubts the sin­cer­i­ty of her past rela­tion­ship with Bre­itwieser, claim­ing he saw her mere­ly as an object. How­ev­er, Bre­itwieser appears to move on quick­ly after Anne-Cather­ine cuts ties with him in late 2005. He begins dat­ing Stéphanie Man­gin, a nurse’s assis­tant who resem­bles Anne-Cather­ine in both looks and pro­fes­sion. Their bond is imme­di­ate, prompt­ing Bre­itwieser to move into Stéphanie’s apart­ment in Stras­bourg short­ly after their rela­tion­ship begins.

Bre­itwieser finds new­found hope, refer­ring to Stéphanie as his “rock” and plans for the future. Addi­tion­al­ly, he expe­ri­ences a finan­cial boon when he is paid over $100,000 by a pub­lish­ing com­pa­ny for a ten-day inter­view that leads to the release of his book, *Con­fes­sions of an Art Thief.* In it, he out­lines a plan to piv­ot to life as an art-secu­ri­ty con­sul­tant, intend­ing to offer afford­able solu­tions like updat­ed dis­play cas­es and motion sen­sors to muse­ums and col­lec­tors.

Things take a turn for the worse when Bre­itwieser, feel­ing embold­ened by the pub­li­ca­tion and a new life, steals items from a cloth­ing bou­tique at the air­port in Paris. His reck­less deci­sion leads to his arrest after he mis­counts the num­ber of under­cov­er secu­ri­ty guards. Despite the minor legal consequences—an overnight stay in cus­tody and com­mu­ni­ty service—his pub­lic image crum­bles. Crit­ics mock him, and his aspi­ra­tions of becom­ing a respect­ed con­sul­tant are met with ridicule.

Bat­tered by pub­lic opin­ion, he retreats to Stéphanie’s apart­ment, where he strug­gles with feel­ings of worth­less­ness and iso­la­tion, find­ing it dif­fi­cult to secure legit­i­mate employ­ment. His emo­tion­al tur­moil esca­lates, cul­mi­nat­ing in a relapse into thiev­ery when he steals a valu­able land­scape by Pieter Brueghel the Younger at an antiques fair in Bel­gium, which he hangs in Stéphanie’s apart­ment. This act brings him a fleet­ing sense of joy and con­nec­tion to art, yet he risks every­thing, includ­ing his rela­tion­ship with Stéphanie.

When she dis­cov­ers the paint­ing’s ori­gins, she real­izes the weight of their sit­u­a­tion and, feel­ing com­pro­mised, ends their rela­tion­ship. In a twist of betray­al, she con­tacts the police with evi­dence of his theft, lead­ing to Breitwieser’s arrest once again.