Chap­ter 6 of The Art Thief begins with Breitwieser’s first taste of excite­ment from com­mit­ting a theft—this time, a pis­tol from a muse­um, which fills him with a potent mix of exhil­a­ra­tion and fear. With Anne-Cather­ine at his side, the two escape with­out detec­tion, the scenic dri­ve through the Alsace region offer­ing a brief respite as they process their dar­ing act. The absence of imme­di­ate police pur­suit leaves them feel­ing vic­to­ri­ous, as if they have out­smart­ed the author­i­ties. Over the next sev­er­al weeks, what began as fear grad­u­al­ly shifts to a sense of relief, then pride. Bre­itwieser soon comes to rel­ish the audac­i­ty of his actions, and the stolen pis­tol becomes a cher­ished sym­bol of their suc­cess. Its pres­ence in his pos­ses­sion fuels his grow­ing obses­sion, remind­ing him of the bold­ness of his crime and the escape they man­aged to pull off.

As the weeks pass, Breitwieser’s thrill with steal­ing inten­si­fies. He reflects on a child­hood mem­o­ry of vis­it­ing a medieval muse­um, where an object—a crossbow—had caught his eye. Recall­ing the allure of this arti­fact, he plans to steal it, and Anne-Cather­ine, ever loy­al, joins him on the jour­ney back to the muse­um. Their plan takes shape as they enter the cold, cav­ernous cas­tle with few oth­er vis­i­tors in sight due to the win­ter sea­son. The lack of atten­tion and the castle’s labyrinthine design offer the per­fect oppor­tu­ni­ty to exe­cute their plan. The cross­bow is sus­pend­ed too high to be eas­i­ly accessed, but with inge­nu­ity and quick think­ing, Bre­itwieser finds a way to get to it. Using a chair to reach the high shelf, he and Anne-Cather­ine keep a care­ful watch for guards. Once the cross­bow is retrieved, they real­ize it’s too large to fit in their bags. Think­ing fast, Bre­itwieser opens a win­dow to low­er the cross­bow to the ground, tim­ing their exit so as not to raise sus­pi­cion. Their swift get­away is punc­tu­at­ed by only a small noise, but noth­ing alarm­ing enough to draw atten­tion. Their escape is a suc­cess, and as they dri­ve away, they feel an over­whelm­ing sense of achieve­ment.

The thrill of their suc­cess­ful theft is height­ened when a local news­pa­per reports the crime. How­ev­er, much to their delight, the arti­cle fails to con­nect them to the heist, which only adds to their sense of pride. Their pride soon leads them to cel­e­brate their heist by mak­ing a scrap­book of their accom­plish­ments. For Bre­itwieser and Anne-Cather­ine, each stolen item is more than just an object; it’s a mark of their tri­umph over the mun­dane world. Their crim­i­nal activ­i­ties pro­vide a thrilling escape, and the attic, pro­vid­ed by Breitwieser’s moth­er, becomes their refuge—a pri­vate world where their illic­it lifestyle is unin­ter­rupt­ed. His moth­er remains unaware of their ille­gal pur­suits, allow­ing them to con­tin­ue with­out fear of detec­tion. Inside the attic, they begin to col­lect their stolen trea­sures, fur­nish­ing the space with pieces that reflect their desires for wealth and sta­tus. Their grow­ing col­lec­tion takes on a sym­bol­ic mean­ing, rep­re­sent­ing not just their suc­cess in art theft, but their fan­ta­sy of liv­ing a more glam­orous, aris­to­crat­ic life. The attic becomes a man­i­fes­ta­tion of their shared dreams and desires, pro­vid­ing them with a space where their crim­i­nal lifestyle can thrive.

This new­found life, built on art theft, grows as their rela­tion­ship deep­ens. They con­tin­ue to steal, adding to their col­lec­tion, and each new heist strength­ens the bond they share. Bre­itwieser reflects on how their crim­i­nal acts have brought them clos­er, a shared thrill bond­ing them even more. The attic, with its grow­ing col­lec­tion of stolen art­work, serves as a phys­i­cal man­i­fes­ta­tion of their new reality—one that sep­a­rates them from the ordi­nary world. Yet, even as their sense of accom­plish­ment grows, there is an under­ly­ing ten­sion between their desires and the poten­tial con­se­quences of their actions. The more they indulge in their crim­i­nal activ­i­ties, the more their rela­tion­ship with soci­ety becomes strained. As they con­tin­ue to build a life based on stolen art, they must con­front the inevitable fall­out from their choic­es, which looms ever larg­er. Despite the thrills and excite­ment, Bre­itwieser and Anne-Catherine’s future remains uncer­tain, and the con­se­quences of their actions are wait­ing to catch up with them.