In May 2002, while jailed in Switzerland, Stéphane Breitwieser learns from television reports that his mother, Mireille Stengel, admitted to destroying the stolen paintings. Media speculation explodes, wildly inflating valuations into the billions. Fearing impossible restitution and overwhelmed by shame, Breitwieser refuses interviews and says nothing publicly.

Stengel is imprisoned; Anne‑Catherine remains free and denies involvement. In despair, Breitwieser fashions a noose from braided dental floss, but a guard intervenes. He is put on suicide watch and given antidepressants. Detective Alexandre Von der Mühll visits with auction catalogs; Breitwieser fixates on a traffic light until he steadies and resolves to win back Anne‑Catherine. He sends numerous love letters and later makes a contraband phone call, only to be told she will not speak to him.

A lifeline arrives when his estranged father, Roland Breitwieser, writes a supportive letter after seeing the news. Father and son reconcile, leading to regular visits; Roland later introduces his wife and her daughter, and brings Stéphane’s maternal grandparents. The grandparents remain forgiving—his grandmother quips, “Museums didn’t have to leave all that stuff lying around.”

Stabilized, Breitwieser adapts to prison routines: assembling hearing aids, riding a stationary bike, learning about money laundering from inmates, and selling clean urine samples for soda. Meanwhile, case preparations grind on as multiple national proceedings loom.

On February 4, 2003, fifteen months after his arrest, he is transported to the Criminal Court of Gruyères, chosen because of his first Swiss theft there. Through a media scrum, he enters a fortress-turned-courthouse and faces a stern judge with four jurors. With attorney Jean-Claude Morisod at his side, proceedings begin under intense public scrutiny.