By Jordan Heller
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — A convicted art scammer is in federal custody after defrauding a collector over the purchase of the 19th-century painting "Portrait of a Girl," authorities said Thursday.
Thomas Doyle was charged with fraud on Thursday after investigators discovered that he'd conned an unidentified Japanese collector into paying too much for the painting by Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, according to the complaint.
Authorities were alerted to Doyle's alleged fraud after a gallery owner that he had reportedly dated filed a civil suit in Manhattan Supreme Court, accusing an art courier of losing the painting after a night of drinking.
The woman, Kristyn Trudgeon, withdrew her suit after federal authorities alerted her to Doyle's shady past, according to the complaint and previous reports. It is unclear whether the courier had ever gone out drinking and lost the painting as the original suit filed by Trudgeon had alleged.
The current whereabouts of "Portrait of a Girl" remain unknown.
This is not the first time Doyle has been involved in art fraud. The New York Post reported that he had served time for for defrauding the owner of a Degas sculpture in 2007.
"Thomas Doyle will not be decorating his walls with any fine works of art anytime soon," said FBI assistant director-in-charge Janice K. Fedarcyk.
She added that "those walls may be the inside of a prison cell."
Doyle is accused of lying to the Japanese investor about the purchase price of "Portrait of a Girl." Doyle told the investor the painting could be bought for $1.1 million and convinced him to put up $880,000 for an 80 percent share, say the feds. He allegedly claimed he would pay the other $220,000 for a 20 percent stake.
In fact, Doyle had bought the painting for $775,000, say the feds. He pocketed the $100,000 difference, according to the complaint.
After acquiring the painting in June and depositing the investor's money into his bank account, Doyle further misled the investor about a possible resale, according the complaint.
He claimed that he'd located a buyer willing to pay $1.7 million when, in fact, an experienced art appraiser had estimated the painting's value between $500,000 and $700,000.
Not long after, the painting disappeared from a storage locker, says the complaint.
