Between 1995 and 2001, Stéphane Breitwieser carried out an astonishing 239 heists across 172 museums in Europe—about one every 15 days. Unlike typical art thieves, he didn’t steal for profit; he stole out of obsession, turning his mother’s house into a secret gallery of stolen masterpieces.

His method was simple yet audacious: accompanied by his girlfriend, Anne-Catherine Kleinklaus, who acted as a lookout, he would quietly remove paintings from frames or pocket small artifacts in broad daylight. His most valuable theft? Sybille, Princess of Cleves by Lucas Cranach the Elder, valued at over £5 million—but it, like many other stolen works, was tragically destroyed by his mother after his arrest.

His downfall came in 2001 after stealing a 16th-century bugle from the Richard Wagner Museum in Switzerland. A journalist out walking his dog spotted him, leading to his arrest. Breitwieser and his accomplices faced legal consequences, and in 2023, he was sentenced to house arrest with an ankle monitor.

His story, chronicled in Michael Finkel’s The Art Thief, is a tale of passion, crime, and cultural loss—one of the most prolific and bizarre art theft sprees in history.