After the Sotheby’s theft, Stéphane Breitwieser and Anne-Catherine return home and privately handle Cranach’s Sibylle of Cleves, admiring both the painting and its wax-sealed provenance. They reaffirm strict secrecy in their attic rooms: no one ever enters, and any repairs are handled by them. Breitwieser embraces the idea that a secret life is ideal.

The couple’s world narrows. Breitwieser, a self-described loner, imagines a life with only Anne-Catherine and the art, even fantasizing about fleeing to an island. Anne-Catherine is slightly more social but cannot be honest with friends, a constraint that tires her. They live largely sealed off, with him focused on history rather than current events, and their lawlessness requiring constant discipline.

His mother, Mireille Stengel, remains an involuntary third presence in the house. On Christmas Day 1995, as Stengel prepares to host friends, Anne-Catherine films, and Breitwieser moves from juvenile joking to declaring a New Year’s resolution to keep stealing—paintings, weapons, antiques—aiming for art worth millions, saying he will feel wrong in his skin if he fails.

Stengel has seen him carry pieces upstairs, and all interior doors share a key she possesses, yet she avoids confronting the truth. When Breitwieser asks if she heard his declaration, she wordlessly turns up the music and retreats, signaling willful ignorance. Breitwieser recognizes her protective stance and the bind he has created; he believes she will not turn him in.