Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast - The Art Thief Stole $2 Billion - The Stephane Breitwiese Story

Episode Date: September 9, 2025

Stéphane Breitwieser is a French art thief who, between 1995 and 2001, stole more than 200 artworks and artifacts from small museums across Europe, with an estimated total value of over $2 billion.

So this guy stole billions of dollars in priceless art. Billions. Now the guy's name's Stefan, and Stefan is 24 living in France, and Bro is obsessed with art and artifacts, and he really, really wants to own some of it for himself. But unfortunately, he can't because he's broke. In fact, he still lives at home in his mother's attic. But one day, around 1995, all that changes.

because he's at a local museum with his girlfriend, this woman, Anne Catherine. And so they're there and they spot this antique pistol that's on display. And Stefan is immediately like, oh-huh, that's so cool. And he looks around and he notices there's no security guard watching. And he really wants to steal this pistol. However, he's there with Anne Catherine and he doesn't really know how she'll respond if he suddenly just swipes it. And so he asks her, Hey, do you mind if I break the law and steals his presidless artifact?

And I guess she's like, all right. And so Stefan picks up the pistol, and he puts it in his backpack, and they walk out of the museum all casual-like. Like, they didn't just commit a major crime. After that, I guess they're like, well, that was easy. I guess we shall do it again. And they do. They hit up another museum and they steal something from there. And again, they're successful with no problems.

And pretty soon, this turns into a whole routine. They hop from museum to museum to museum across France, just taking shit. Small sculptures, paintings, relics, ancient artifacts, anything they can throw in their bag and sneak out the door. And it's so surprisingly easy for them that they decide to go international. And soon they hit up places all over Europe, Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland. And they're smart about it. They make sure to target places with weak security. Places that barely have any cameras or no cameras at all, and they often hit these places during lunch because any security guards will likely be on break and they are less likely to be spotted.

And while Stefan snatches up the artifact and puts it in his bag, or if it's a painting, he'll remove it from its frame and just slip it under his coat, while he's doing that, and Catherine is usually on the lookout. And she'll like give him a little cough to signal whenever someone's approaching, so they got this whole scheme all worked out. Now, you would think that they would then sell all of this art on the black market and make millions of dollars. But actually, they don't. In fact, they don't sell a single piece of it. Instead, they just hang it all up or put it on display in their room. And I say their room? Because at this point, they don't have a place of their own.

Stefan is still living in the attic at his mom's house and Anne Catherine lives there with him. Which is crazy because they're broken. and they could clearly use the money, but they just love being surrounded by art. I'm guessing they also love the thrill of stealing it. But anyway, this whole crime spree goes on for a couple of years, and it's now 1997, and here is where they stumble. One day, Stefan and Ann Catherine, they hit up an art gallery in Switzerland, and they steal a painting like they often do,

and then they both carefully walk out. But this time, one of the gallery employees notices the painting is missing right away. And he's like, someone took the painting! And he chases after them, and I guess he catches them, because bam, Stefan and and Catherine get arrested. Here's the thing, though. Police don't know that these two have been stealing art all over Europe.

They only know about this one instance. And since they think it's Stefan and Anne Catherine's first offense, they let them off light. They get banned from Switzerland for like three years, and they get a prison sentence, but the sentence is suspended as long as they stay out of trouble. So of course, because they didn't really get in any trouble, they not only go back to stealing,

but they get real cocky about it, and they start taking even bigger risks. So Stefan and Anne Catherine, they start hitting up bigger museums. They hit up art fairs, auction houses, sometimes they hit up churches, which means that nearly every few weeks now, they're stealing some art piece from some,

Sometimes they even robbed the same museum more than once in the same few day period. Like here's a painting they stole, here's another one, here's another one, and they also stole whatever the hell this is. And so they keep this going for three more years. And by this point they've stolen around 300 pieces of art. And all that priceless art has an estimated value of, are you ready for this? $2 billion. $2 billion worth of art. But remember, they're not selling any of it,

which actually makes it harder for police to track them. So at this point, Stefan is feeling pretty unstoppable. However, Anne Catherine is not. In fact, she starts feeling more and more paranoid. Ever since they got busted back in Switzerland and they got their fingerprints taken, she's convinced that their names are in some kind of international database and that it's only a matter of time before police catch up to them. So she goes to Stefan and she's like,

I am done. I do not want to go to jail. You should quit too. But Stefan is not trying to hear all that. And so they make a small compromise. They'll keep the scheme going, but he agrees to wear gloves when he steals and they will never steal from Switzerland again. And Stefan's like, we-wee-wee.

But deep down, he's thinking, le fuck all that. And it's at this point that Stefan starts going a little bit rogue. He begins going out on his own and pulling off heist. And one day in 2001, he's feeling extra brave. And he decides it's a good idea to go back to Switzerland and try and steal from there again. Even though he just promised Anne Catherine he wouldn't. And so he's there in Switzerland, in a museum not too far from where he got busted. the first time, and there he spots this 15th century bugle.

And it's got to be worth a lot of money. So he steals it. Then he leaves and he brings it home. And Anne Catherine sees it and she's like, please tell me that you wore gloves. And Stefan is like, no, no. And he's also like, I stole it in Switzerland. And this, of course, leads to a big argument.

And the next morning, I guess Stefan is feeling pretty bad about upsetting his girlfriend. And he's like, Okay, I'll take it back and clean up the fingerprints. But Anne Catherine is like, no way, it's too risky. I'll do it. And so they drive there so that she can go into the museum and I guess wipe up the fingerprints that he left. And so they get there and Anne Catherine goes inside while he stays in the car.

And after a while, Stefan, I guess he gets bored and he gets out and he starts walking around. And that is when some random passerby notices him acting all shape, and they report him to the museum cashier. The museum cashier takes one look at Stefan and he goes, that guy was here yesterday when the bugle was stolen, and he calls the police. And so, bam, Stefan is arrested.

And I couldn't find a picture of him, so here's a picture of a baguette. Now here's where it gets crazy though. Anne Catherine hears that Stefan has been busted and she apparently drives home, which is Stefan's mom's house, and she confesses everything thing to Stefan's mom, how they've been stealing artworks and artifacts for years and that he's now

been busted. And Stefan's mom gets super pissed. But she also wants to get rid of the evidence so that Stefan doesn't have to go to prison for a long time. So she grabs everything from his room in the attic that she can, hundreds of pieces of artwork and artifacts, and she smashes a bunch of it, she burns a bunch of it, and she dumps the rest in a local river. So all of that priceless art and artifacts, like $2 billion worth, are all completely destroyed. Anyway, ultimately, Anne Catherine gets sentenced to 18 months in prison, while Stefan, he gets

sentenced to four years in prison. And later, when Stefan gets out of prison, he goes right back to stealing art. Like, to this day, I think he's been busted a bunch of times. He's on house arrest right now, to this day. So lesson not learned.