A Kansas schoolteacher who married Doyle told friends she thought he was an investment banker. “To me this was the clincher,” Matthiesen later said in an interview. Soon after, Doyle told Matthiesen he found a person named Chris willing to buy the Courbet painting for $550,000. “I’ve been offered this painting over the past decade, and I have no interest,’” Landau told her. “A buck and a quarter,” Landau told her, meaning he’d be willing to pay $125,000.

Source: Wall Street Journal January 11, 2026 14:37 UTC