A Literal Portrait of Art Thief Stéphane Breitwieser -- and News of Another Arrest

Portrait of art thief Stéphane Breitwieser with artist Jean-Paul Matifat (Courtesy of the artist's website)

by Catherine Schofield Sezgin, Editor-in-Chief

This week we'll be running a series of posts by ARCA Alum 2009 Katherine Ogden about the image of the art crime criminal in the media. This morning ARTINFO published a story about the second arrest of convicted art thief Stéphane Breitwieser who apparently loves art and the money generated by stealing art. ARTINFO included a portrait of Breitwieser by artist Jean_Paul Matifat. The portrait, according to the artist's website here, is 7 feet high and 6 feet wide. Many of us might find Breitwieser a romantic anti-hero except for the collaboration of his mother who destroyed art in an effort to hide evidence against her son. This time Breitwieser's mother was also arrested as she had accompanied her son from France to Germany to sell a stolen vase.