Breitwieser is transferred to a jail southwest of the Swiss mountains, where he is questioned by art-crime detective Alexandre Von der Mühll.
Von der Mühll attempts to build mutual respect with Breitwieser by relating to him as a fellow art collector and showing compassion instead of intimidation.
Von der Mühll encourages Breitwieser to confess, stating that it will likely result in a lighter sentence, and progressively gets him to provide detailed recounts of his thefts.
Breitwieser eventually confesses to additional thefts beyond those initially connected with him, although he only admits to what Von der Mühll first suggests.
To protect them, Breitwieser maintains throughout his interrogations that his girlfriend Anne-Catherine and his mother both had no knowledge or involvement in his crimes.
Once a level of trust is established, Von der Mühll confronts Breitwieser about missing paintings - these represent the highest-value items and were initially left out of the investigation.
Breitwieser admits to stealing 69 Renaissance paintings, a declaration which Von der Mühll realizes marks one of the largest art crimes in history.
Breitwieser claims to not know the current whereabouts of the paintings, initially saying he left them in his mother's attic. However, upon learning from Von der Mühll about a police search that turned up nothing, he is confused and worried.
Von der Mühll arranges for Breitwieser's mother to visit her son with immunity from arrest, in the hope she can provide the location of the missing paintings.
During the meeting, despite pleas from Breitwieser, his mother insists that there are no paintings and warns him to stick to that version of events.