In Brussels’s Art & History Museum, Stéphane Breitwieser notices a display labeled with a small OBJECTS REMOVED FOR STUDY card and recognizes its value as cover. Drawn to a case of exuberant late‑sixteenth‑century Augsburg silver, he finds the modern lock unpickable but, using knowledge from a hardware store job, pops the cylinder with his Swiss Army knife, creating an opening.

With Anne‑Catherine joining from her lookout, they select two nautilus‑shell chalices and a coconut tankard, leave the OBJECTS REMOVED card inside, close the case, and reinsert the loose lock to disguise the breach. At the car, Breitwieser remembers the missing coconut lid, and the pair reenter by claiming a lost earring. They retrieve the lid and seize two additional goblets.

Planning repeat visits, they lightly disguise themselves—stubble, new hairstyles, and round glasses—and return. Breitwieser takes the silver warship and a tall chalice hidden up his sleeve. When a guard challenges them for tickets, they produce them and announce they are heading to the café, then actually eat there, defusing suspicion. They lay low at a budget hotel, pay in cash, and spend two days at the movies; he also calls his mother nightly without mentioning the thefts.

After another minor disguise change, they strike a third time, further emptying the case. Across three visits they remove eleven silver masterworks, leaving the display nearly bare. Flush with success on the drive home, Breitwieser impulsively steals a massive silver‑and‑gold urn from an antiques shop while the dealer is on the stairs; later, Anne‑Catherine phones to learn it’s worth about $100,000, and the dealer still has not noticed it is gone.