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Breitwieser while visiting a medieval castle in Gruyères, Switzerland while his girlfriend kept watch he took the nails that held the painting in the frame and took it.
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Breitwieser and his girlfriend traveled around Europe stealing paintings from small museums and art exhibits.
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Breitwieser and his girlfriend cut a painting out of a frame at an auction in New York City it was a painting from Lucas Cranach the Elder worth 5 to 5.6 million euros.
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Breitwieser and his girlfriend were caught when they took a painting from a private viewing that they got special permission to see they were banned from switzerland until 2000 but he continued to work at his job in switzerland and steal paintings
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He was seen by a guard taking a painting but got away he returned a few days later and the guard recognized him and Breitwieser was arrested
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Breitwieser kept the paintings in his room at his mom's house with our her knowing when she found out her son was being arrested she started shredding and cutting the art up and throwing the artifacts such as jewelry into the river in their town
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The day before his sentencing he attempted suicide but was stopped when an inmate got a guard to stop him
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Breitwieser was sentenced to 3 years in jail but served 26 months along with his girlfriend who was sentenced to 18 months and his mother was sentenced to 3 years aswell.
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in 2011 the police found 30 more stolen pieces of art which landed him in jail for another 3 years
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He was arrested in 2019 after being on watch from the police when he sold a stolen paper weight on ebay they also found some roman coiuns and 163,000 euros in cash in buckets in his room
