we are in front of one of the most mysterious robberies in the new history more than 1. 9 billion worth of artworks disappeared without any Trace he stole 1. 9 billion of art the puzzling case in polls notorious art Thief caught after stealing 1.
9 billion of artworks the art Thief who fooled the world the investigator couldn't believe that one person still 1. 9 billion invaluable works by these simple tools screwdriver antenna and an oversized jacket these are all the tools that Stephen breitweiser needed to steal works of art worth 1. 9 billion dollars how did he do all this with these simple tools well let's dive in this incredible story of the man who stole 1.
9 billion dollars in front of the guard's eyes the beginning of our story March 1995 was in Switzerland specifically in a town called Greer the protagonist of this story is a French man named Stephen breitwizer Stefan was traveling to this town and was accompanied by his girlfriend Anne Catherine to visit an ancient medieval castle this Castle was called Greer Castle it is currently a museum that contains various Antiquities and art pieces dating back to the Middle Ages this Castle had corridors and large rooms dedicated to paintings meaning all its corridors and walls were filled with these panels when Stephen and his girlfriend walked between these corridors in rooms and saw the beautiful paintings one cut Stephen's eye this painting was the work of a German artist named Christian Bale Hans Dietrich painting was a picture of a woman wearing a dress and her eyes were directed outside the painting directly as if she was looking at the person who saw in the painting our friend Stephen at this moment came to have a strong desire to steal this painting although he had never stolen anything before in his life the sudden feeling took over his entire being he was saying this painting should be mine so he simply told his sweetheart Catherine that he wanted to steal the painting of course everyone expects that Catherine will end him and tell him that you will ruin our life and put us in danger but Anne Catherine simply said to him well excellent idea let's do it so she went with him to the museum and began observing the place and the corridors which were relatively empty the museum at that time had very few tourists and the security was very weak guards were counting on fingers and there were no surveillance cameras so while Catherine was watching the corridors Stephen began to undo a painting from its large frame he unpacked the painting very carefully then folded it and hid it under the large jacket he was wearing and simply took Catherine out of the castle they simply carried out an easy theft without any complications but this is the beginning of the greatest thief of paintings and artworks in history this theft made Stefan feel a strong desire to own the paintings he had always loved art and loved to contemplate beautiful paintings but the experience of owning one of them gave him a different feeling special feeling that he wants to grow up with and keep repeating it hence Stefan began stealing art he traveled from country to Country and from exhibition to exhibition he toured all of Europe and carried out about 240 thefts of 172 art galleries that were present in seven different European countries nobody ever caught it was this because Stephen was so professional what kind of complex operations was he planning to get out safely every time well these operations were very simple like the first operation that he did and his beloved Catherine became his permanent partner in these operations so she was assigned to monitor the corridors Stephen's task is to unscrew the screws that fix the painting to the frame and after he finishes he takes it off folds it and puts it under his large jacket but is it reasonable that the security is weak to this degree the secret was simply Stephen's intelligence when choosing his targets if it's even targeted museums and large galleries he would have been easily arrested because these museums are always heavily guarded Stephen was focused on poorly guarded Galleries and museums the only tools Stefan used in his operations were the screwdriver he used first to unscrew the paintings from their frames an antenna of the kind that expands which he used to deflect the surveillance cameras from the galleries he was stealing and of course the large jacket that he used to hide the paintings inside after folding them of course the most important tool he had was his self-confidence and the coolness of his nerves which kept him calm under any pressures that might occur during the operation this amazing confidence made him able to steal from the same gallery or Museum more than once he only disguises himself with something simple as a mustache or a beard and steals again from the same place his self-confidence was something out of the ordinary according to estimates by the New York Times the total value of the paintings and artwork he stole was about 1. 9 billion dollars imagine the number with all this Stephen did not appear to be any sign of wealth and affluence on the contrary he was living a below average life he was working as a waiter in a restaurant and girlfriend Catherine was working as a nurse imagine that they were living in the Attic of Stephen's mother's house they weren't even able to provide themselves with a decent home so why did they live like this despite all these thefts and the high value of the paintings he had the reason is simply that Stephen has not sold any of the paintings he stole okay why the reason is that he was not stealing these paintings to benefit financially he was stealing them because he loves the art in these paintings if we go back to the first theft we talked about Stefan stole This Woman's painting because he was actually impressed with her beauty and the art in it and from that time he stole the paintings that he really liked and was impressed with not stealing because of their high value every corner and every void in the walls of Stephen's modest apartment was filled with paintings worth up to 1. 9 billion dollars strange thing but that was the thing that gave Stefan a huge Advantage as an art Thief this is one of the reasons why the police couldn't catch him because in fact most art thieves get caught after a short time once they start selling the things they stole this is one of the most important reasons why stiffen was not caught despite the hundreds of thefts that he committed but Stephen had a problem of Another Kind which is Artistic greed he wanted to grow his artistic collection more so he was never satisfied and he could not stop so he continued to commit thefts without any clear goal or a specific point at which he intended to stop you'd like this until he made a fatal mistake that turned his life upside down this theft was in Switzerland specifically in the museum of a city called lausanne and the year was 1997.
