The co-owner of a $1 million painting that went missing in New York under mysterious circumstances once stole books from an art library at the University of Kansas.
Tom Doyle is a central figure in the case of a Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot painting that a handler supposedly misplaced during a night of hard drinking. The handler, James Carl Haggerty, became a tabloid punchline when his misadventure with "Portrait of a Girl" was described in a recent lawsuit. But suspicion has turned to Doyle, Haggerty's friend, convicted felon and a co-owner of the painting.
In 1993, Doyle received a sentence of 30 months in federal prison for stealing catalogues raisonne of French impressionists from the Spencer Museum of Art. According to a 2006 Kansas City Star story, Doyle roamed the stacks, pretending to be a well-connected art lover, until the FBI was able to establish that he was stuffing books into a metal briefcase. Authorities said Doyle sold the books for $45,000 to $50,000.
A career con artist, Doyle has been in and out of prison. The objects of his thieving include a violin, a fur and $200,000 worth of jewels from a woman in Virginia. In 2006, prosecutors in New York accused of him trying to steal a Degas sculpture from an elderly couple. He spent two years in prison on that charge.
A lawyer representing Kristyn Trudgeon, co-owner of the Corot, dropped the lawsuit against Haggerty upon the discovery of Doyle's past. On Thursday, a reporter for The New York Times found Doyle at Trudgeon's apartment, of all places. Maintaining that he was the victim, Doyle worried that his reputation in the New York art world had been compromised by his recent publicity.
I'm guessing I'm probably out of the art business, but who knows. Right now, I want my painting back. Nothing more, nothing less. That's my concern.
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We spotted your entry about the Quran issue and it reminded me of something I heard on Sean Hannity. I wish we can all live in harmony.
Art culture is a subculture that mirrors the culture-at-large. It is steeped in corruption. Flim-flammery abounds on every level. Triple A list dealer, Larry Salander, guilty of thievery and fraud at a mucho multi million dollar level is doing fat time in the big house even as we speak. Doyle most likely will end up in a cell nearby. Maybe they might agree to curate shows together in the chow hall.
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