Thief's mother destroys treasures worth $2.5bn
Cacophonist
An art thief's mother has destroyed and thrown out a collection worth
more than $A2.5billion, writes Philip Delves Broughton in Paris.
"Over six years, Frenchman Stephane Breitwieser stole art from 172
museums across Europe. He stole from the Louvre in Paris, and from
museums in Germany, Switzerland, Belgium and the Netherlands.
They were brazen crimes, and nobody was more furious with the art
thief than his mother.
Indeed, when police finally caught up with 31-year-old Breitwieser in
November, his mother, Mireille, became very angry. So angry that she
destroyed and threw out artworks worth more than $2.5 billion.
First she took about 100 precious objects, including vases, weapons
and musical instruments, and threw them into the Rhine-Rhone canal,
about 150 kilometres from her home in Strasbourg.
When she got home she cut about 60 paintings into pieces and shoved
them down her sink disposal unit with the potato peelings, or hid them
at the bottom of her dustbin, so they would be taken away by the
rubbish collectors.
Now her confession has ended a worldwide search for the works. And the
art world is stunned. It is grieving the loss of loss of paintings by
artists such as Brueghel, Boucher and Watteau. The paintings include
The Monkey's Ball by David Teniers, Sleeping Shepherd by Francois
Boucher, Madeleine de France, Queen of Scotland by Corneille de la
Haye, The Princess of Cleves by Lucas Cranach and Cheating Benefits
its Master by Pieter Brueghel.
"Destruction of canvasses on this scale is almost unprecedented," said
Alexandra Smith, of the Art Loss Register in London, an organisation
that tracks stolen art works. "It is shocking that these canvasses are
lost forever."
Mrs Breitwieser, 53, told police she did it because she was very angry
with her son when he was arrested. He was arrested across the Swiss
border at a museum in Lucerne after being seen stealing a bugle.
He and his girlfriend, Anne-Catherine Kleinklauss, a hospital worker
from Mulhouse, had been stealing from museums since 1995, sometimes
three or four in a weekend. They generally picked on regional museums,
where security was lax. While Kleinklauss kept a look-out, Breitwieser
did the stealing, quickly cutting paintings from their frames with a
knife, rolling them up and hiding them under his coat.
Breitwieser, a convicted shoplifter and the grandson of a Strasbourg
artist, told police he loved art. Like many people living in
Strasbourg, he worked in Switzerland, crossing the border each day to
work in smart restaurants.
He spent his spare time visiting castles and galleries, plotting his
thefts. He stole pictures he liked - mainly 17th and 18th-century
works - but also just for the thrill of it.
When he was arrested, his girlfriend rushed to the mother's house,
where the stolen works were stored, and told her what had happened.
After she left, Mrs Breitwieser panicked, gathered up everything
except the paintings and drove to the canal.
Three days later a man walking along the canal saw the objects lying
in the mud near Gerstheim. Police dredged the canal and found 109
objects, which they stored in a jail cell.
It took a week for Swiss officers to obtain clearance from the French
to question Mrs Breitwieser. When they arrived at her house all they
found was the cord from the stolen bugle, but that was enough to keep
her son behind bars.
He allegedly confessed to everything and to gave a list of the museums
he had stolen from and what he had taken. He said he had never
intended to sell what he stole, police said.
Asked if his mother and girlfriend might have destroyed the paintings,
he is said to have laughed and replied: "They would not do that; even
they know how much they are worth."
Police said Mrs Breitwieser told them she destroyed the paintings
because she was furious at her son. She was afraid that, at her age
and as the mother of an international art thief, she would lose her
job and Swiss work permit and never find another job.
A trial date is still to be set."
The Telegraph, London