Degas Stolen Sculpture

A man was charged with stealing a bronze Degas art sculpture valued at $600,000 from a New York art collector, who is pushing Manhattan's Spanierman Art Gallery to reveal its whereabouts. Forty-eight-year-old Thomas Doyle posed as a member of an art collecting family to befriend Norman Alexander, the owner of Danseuse Regardant le Plant de son Pied Droit, a sculpture of a dancer looking at the sole of her foot, the Manhattan District Attorney said today. Doyle is accused of taking the art in 2004 and selling it for $225,000. Doyle later offered to pay Alexander $600,000 for the art and gave him $100,000, according to court papers. Alexander sued for breach of contract in state Supreme Court last year and won a default judgment against Doyle; that order is on hold while the art gallery appeals. Irish Art