A recidivist fraudster has been arrested in a scheme involving a 19th-century Gustave Courbet painting and is now facing federal wire fraud charges.

A Connecticut man identified as Thomas Doyle, also known by the names “AJ” and “Austin Doyle,” was arrested on charges tied to the alleged theft and sale of a Gustave Courbet painting titled “Mother and Child on a Hammock.” Doyle, 68, now faces a federal indictment unsealed in Manhattan that accuses him of duping the painting’s owner and misdirecting sale proceeds. Authorities say the conduct spanned from late 2022 through early 2025 and involved false representations and the use of intermediaries to move the work.

Officials say Doyle reached out to the owner, identified in court papers as Victim-1, in December 2022 and carried on communications over email and WhatsApp Messenger. Prosecutors allege Doyle repeatedly misrepresented his role in the art world, including claiming to manage the “art side” of a family trust with billions in assets. That false persona appears to have been used to gain trust and custody of the painting so he could facilitate a sale that never properly compensated the owner.

“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.”

In June 2024, Doyle and Victim-1 began discussing the Hammock and the owner agreed to let Doyle take custody for a potential buyer’s viewing. By July 2024, Doyle claimed he had a buyer and secured authorization to sell the painting for $550,000. According to the indictment, Doyle then falsely told the owner that the painting had been sold for that price, while his associates took different steps behind the scenes.

Prosecutors say an associate of Doyle offered the painting on consignment to a Manhattan gallery with a fabricated provenance that claimed Victim-1 had sold the work in 2019. The gallery then sold the painting on October 1, 2024, for $125,000 to a collector, and wired $115,000 on October 3, 2024, to the associate after deducting its commission. The same day, the associate reportedly paid Doyle $109,250 for the painting.

Instead of forwarding sale proceeds to Victim-1, the indictment alleges Doyle kept the money and spent it on personal expenses and debts. By February 2025, the funds were gone and Doyle began blaming the supposed buyer for a delay in payment, even though prosecutors say he had in fact been paid. On March 4, 2025, Doyle sent an email admitting he had “betrayed” and “lied” to Victim-1 about the Hammock.

Doyle is charged with one count of wire fraud in the Southern District of New York, a charge that carries a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. The filing notes that any actual sentence will be determined by the judge assigned to the case, U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian, after conviction and any applicable sentencing process.

The unsealed indictment follows a prior conviction in 2011 in the Southern District of New York for a separate art-related fraud, a fact prosecutors highlighted while announcing the recent arrest. Doyle was taken into custody in Norwalk, Connecticut, and presented in the Southern District of New York following the arrest, according to court filings and charging documents.

Officials credited the FBI’s Art Crime Team for investigative work and said the Justice Department’s Illicit Finance and Money Laundering Unit is handling the prosecution. Assistant U.S. Attorney Cecilia Vogel is listed as the prosecutor in charge of the case, which remains active as law enforcement and the U.S. Attorney’s Office continue to pursue the matter through the courts.

The indictment outlines a straightforward pattern of alleged deception: cultivate access through false credentials, move the artwork through intermediaries, and retain sale proceeds instead of delivering them to the rightful owner. The charge of wire fraud captures those alleged misrepresentations and the interstate communications that prosecutors say carried the scheme forward between 2022 and 2025.

As the case proceeds, the court will weigh the facts presented by prosecutors against any defense the defendant raises. For now, the filing lays out dates, transactions, and messages that prosecutors say show a calculated effort to profit from another party’s valuable artwork without providing the agreed sale proceeds. The federal process will continue with arraignment, discovery, and whatever pretrial steps the parties and the court require.