Convicted Art Fraudster Charged In New Scheme To Steal Gustave Courbet Painting

A Connecticut man previously convicted of art fraud is again facing federal charges, this time accused of stealing the sale proceeds of a 19th-century Gustave Courbet painting after convincing its owner to let him take possession of the artwork.

Thomas Doyle, 68, was arrested in Norwalk, Conn., on Thursday and appeared in Manhattan federal court on Friday, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York announced.

According to the indictment unsealed Thursday, Doyle, a.k.a. “AJ” and “Austin Doyle,” allegedly orchestrated a years-long deception involving the oil painting “Mother and Child on a Hammock.” He was indicted on a charge of wire fraud.

“The art market is largely based on trust,” said U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton. “As alleged, Thomas Doyle breached that trust by telling the owner of a valuable painting a series of brazen lies to trick the owner into giving him the painting so he could keep the profits from the sale of the painting for himself. The women and men of the Southern District of New York and our law enforcement partners will continue to work diligently to root out this type of bad actor.”

Doyle allegedly first approached the victim, an art dealer identified as Victim-1, in December 2022, introducing himself via email as a professional art buyer and seller. Prosecutors say that over the next few years, Doyle communicated with Victim-1 through email and WhatsApp, falsely claiming among other things that he managed the “art side” of a family trust with assets worth billions of dollars.

By June 2024, the two had begun discussing “Mother and Child on a Hammock,” owned by Victim-1. The owner ultimately allowed Doyle to take custody of the painting so it could be shown to a potential buyer that Doyle said he had secured. In July 2024, Victim-1 authorized Doyle to sell the painting for $550,000. By early August, Doyle told the owner that he had successfully sold it for that amount.

Instead, investigators say Doyles associate brought the painting to a Manhattan gallery for consignment and provided fake provenance documents asserting that Victim-1 had sold the work in 2019. On Oct. 1, 2024, the gallery sold the Courbet painting to a collector for $125,000. Two days later, the gallery wired $115,000 in net proceeds to Doyles associate, who immediately transferred $109,250 to Doyle.

According to the indictment, Doyle never sent any of the proceeds to Victim-1. By February 2025, prosecutors say, he had spent the money on personal expenses and paying off his own debts while falsely blaming the purported buyer for not remitting payment. On March 4, 2025, Doyle emailed Victim-1 acknowledging that he had “betrayed” and “lied” about the paintings sale.

Doyle is charged with one count of wire fraud, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. He was previously convicted in the Southern District of New York in 2011 for a separate art-related fraud case.