FRANCE: Few art objects were safe from the well-dressed Mr Breitwieser, writes Lara Marlowe
Like the devoted art collector that he was, Stéphane Breitwieser kept a card catalogue file on the 109 objets d'arts and 63 old masters in his possession. After each acquisition, the 31-year-old Alsatian waiter combed libraries and bookshops for more information about his treasures. From a craftsman in Mulhouse, he ordered appropriate period-style frames.
Mr Breitwieser had to buy the frames because he used a box-cutter to remove the paintings from their original displays in museums in France, Switzerland, Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Austria. Over seven years, the self-taught connoisseur amassed a collection estimated by Libération to be worth up to €2 billion. It included Lucas Cranach's Princess of Cleves, pilfered at a Sotheby's sale in Baden-Baden, Pieter Bruegel's Fraud Profits Its Master, purloined in Anvers, Antoine Watteau's Two Men, thieved in Montpellier, and Francois Boucher's Sleeping Shepherd, lifted from the Blois museum.
The deputy prosecutor of Strasbourg, Mr Pascal Schultz, described Mr Breitwieser as "an enlightened amateur, particularly fond of Belgian and Flemish masters of the 18th century". Instead of selling his loot, he hoarded it in his mother's house at Eschen-tzwiller, near Mulhouse, which is why he was not noticed by international art theft investigators.
Mr Breitwieser has been imprisoned in Switzerland since November 2001. But the affair came to the attention of the French public in recent days when his mother, Mireille (51), was arrested and imprisoned in Strasbourg. Her son's "collection" also included porcelain, antique watches, rare musical instruments and finely wrought sacramental chalices. But Mrs Breitwieser says she believed Stéphane when he claimed he bought the booty at auction.
A nurse who commuted to work across the border in Bale, Mrs Breitwieser was so distraught when she learned of her son's arrest that she decided to dispose of his "museum". She dumped much of it in the Rhine-Rhone canal, which the French army is dredging in the presence of gendarmes and Swiss police. In all, 107 items have been recovered.
Most of the oil paintings, however, are lost forever. Mrs Breitwieser slashed them before throwing them in the river or putting them in her garbage disposal. "I was cleaning house," she told police. She has been indicted for possession of stolen works of art, and may also be charged with their destruction.
Investigators describe Mr Breitwieser as "cold and methodical". He committed all 172 thefts during daytime visits to museums. While his girlfriend, Ms Anne-Catherine Kleinklauss, watched out for guards, the kleptomaniac art lover cut paintings from their frames, rolled them up and concealed them under his coat "with disconcerting facility", according to the prosecutor, Mr Schultz. Ms Kleinklauss has been placed under investigation for complicity.
Mr Breitwieser is the grand-nephew of the minor Alsatian painter Robert Breitwieser. Last November, he visited the Richard Wagner Museum at Tribschen, near Lucerne, where the composer lived. A 17th century horn dating from the time of the Swiss confederation - one of only three in the world - went missing.
"He seemed like a very nice young man. He was well dressed and seemed very interested in our collection," the museum's director, Ms Esther Jaeger, told Le Temps. But Breitwieser had grown over-confident and Ms Jaeger spotted him when he returned to the scene two days later and called police.
Mr Breitwieser will stand trial for the thefts he committed in Switzerland, after which he will be extradited to France to answer for thefts in EU countries.