Stéphane Breitwieser and the Greatest Art Thief in History
Between 1995 and 2001, a man walked into 239 museums across Europe and walked out with objects that did not belong to him. He stole paintings by Rubens, Brueghel, and Watteau. He took sculptures, manuscripts, and artifacts that had survived wars and centuries. He carried them out beneath his jacket while guards stood at exits and cameras recorded visitors passing through galleries. No one stopped him. For six years, no one even knew it was the same person.
Stéphane Breitwieser did not steal for money. He never sold a single piece. He kept everything in a locked attic room in his mother's house in Mulhouse, France, where he sat alone for hours, surrounded by beauties.
What seemed like an endless reign of theft would soon be shattered by one mistake that would unravel the whole empire of stolen treasures.
