Waiter on trial for art robbery spree

A FRENCH waiter went on trial yesterday accused of stealing dozens of artworks from museums across Europe during a seven-year, billion euro spree.

Stephane Breitwieser, 33, whose mother is on trial in Strasbourg for slashing some works or throwing them into a canal, has already served time in Switzerland. He was extradited to France from Switzerland in July where he was sentenced to four years in prison after admitting he stole 239 paintings and museum works.

His most valuable haul was a 16th-century painting by Lucas Cranach the Elder, Sybille, Princess of Cleves, valued at €7.5 million and taken from a Baden-Baden museum in 1995. Breitwieser faces three years in jail if convicted of stealing 23 works in France, plus two in Denmark and one in Austria.