[MSN] Infamous French art thief to release memoir

[Museum Security Network Mailinglist]

Infamous French art thief to release memoir

One of the most infamous European art thieves in recent history is preparing to release a book recounting his years on the lam.

On Wednesday, French publisher Editions Anne Carrière will release Confessions d'un voleur d'art (Confessions of an Art Thief) by former waiter and convicted art thief Stéphane Breitwieser.

Arrested in Switzerland on Nov. 20, 2001, Breitwieser, 35, was eventually tried both in that country and in France for stealing everything from canvases and tapestries to ivories, bronzes, books and other objects.

Breitwieser confessed to pilfering 239 artworks from the mid-1990s through 2001. Some estimated his total haul to have been worth up to $1 billion.

The Swiss court sentenced Breitwieser to four years in jail, while the French court gave him a 26-month sentence.

Love of "beautiful things"

In the book, the 35-year-old man from the northeastern French province of Alsace recounts his lifelong passion for art, antiques and other "beautiful things."

Breitwieser tells of how he began his crime spree at a small museum in Alsace in 1994.

"I wasn't even 23 years old and I was an inexperienced amateur," he writes in his 360-page memoir.

"Over the years, I would become a professional at plundering."

How he did it

In his book, Breitwieser also shares how he was able to make off with so many works from more than 100 museums, galleries, churches and other facilities  displaying art in countries including Switzerland, France and Germany.

In Confessions, the man French press dubbed the "Arsène Lupin of the museums" (after the fictional gentleman thief) details how he took advantage of easily opened windows, faulty security cameras and the meal breaks when staffers left their posts. Often, he simply tossed works out a window for later pick-up or hid them under his coat or in a bag he carried.

Breitwieser, who has claimed to be obsessed with art and kept all the stolen pieces in his bedroom at his mother's house, also describes feeling like the "sky had fallen"  when told that, in an attempt to hide evidence against her son, his mother forced paintings down the waste disposal and tossed other objects into the Rhine-Rhone canal near their home.

A French court convicted her of receiving and destroying stolen items and gave her a three-year prison sentence, 18 months of it suspended.

Anne-Catherine Kleinklauss, Breitwieser's former girlfriend, partner-in-crime and ultimately the person who gave him up, was also convicted of receiving stolen goods. She received an 18-month prison sentence, 12 months of it suspended.

http://www.cbc.ca/