[MSN] 26-year-old Port St. Lucie woman they believe tried to sell at least one stolen Highwaymen painting on eBay almost a year after it and 14 others were stolen from a local attorney's private collection.

[MSN]

PSL woman arrested in Highwaymen painting theft after owner sees it on eBay

By Megan V. Winslow

Originally published 12:29 p.m., March 3, 2008
Updated 01:06 p.m., March 3, 2008

JENSEN BEACH - Deputies have arrested a 26-year-old Port St. Lucie woman
they believe tried to sell at least one stolen Highwaymen painting on eBay
almost a year after it and 14 others were stolen from a local attorney's
private collection.

Theresa Elisabeth Shively, of the 2400 block of Fruit Avenue, was arrested
Tuesday in Jensen Beach on a St. Lucie County warrant for dealing in stolen
property, according to law enforcement reports.

According to the reports, the owner of the 1976 Sam Newton sunset landscape
painting, 64-year-old Neil MacMillan, saw it on the popular auction Web site
Feb. 12 and notified Carlo Sciandra, the Martin County Sheriff's Office
detective investigating the case.

The eBay sale was posted by a seller named "redheadgirl21" who listed the
painting with a starting bid of $999, according to eBay records.

"Up for auction is this original Highwaymen painting by Samuel
Newton...dated 1976...measures 22" X 28" with frame...there is a blemish as
seen in the 4th picture...a very remarkable painting...here's your chance to
own a piece of real Florida history," redheadgirl21 wrote in the ad.

MacMillan said the "blemish" mentioned in the ad is really a brushstroke
that, along with a dated signature, matches his stolen painting.

According to the reports, Sciandra contacted redheadgirl21 pretending to be
an interested buyer but was told the painting had been sold. He purchased
another item instead and arranged to pick it up at Shively's Port St. Lucie
home. On Feb. 14, detectives used a warrant to search the home for the
painting but could not find it. She told Sciandra she bought the painting at
a yard sale and then sold it on eBay but claimed she didn't have the buyer's
contact information.

Sciandra later learned Shively's boyfriend had delivered furniture to
MacMillan's office and "struck up a conversation" about his Highwaymen
collection a few days before the paintings were stolen. He obtained a second
warrant to arrest Shively on Tuesday, according to the reports.

Shively's boyfriend has not yet been arrested in connection with the
painting thefts, law enforcement officials said Monday.

The Highwaymen were a group of 26 black artists from Fort Pierce and Vero
Beach who, beginning in the mid- to late 1950s, painted vivid Florida scenes
and peddled them from the trunks of their cars.

MacMillan, who bought his Highwaymen paintings directly from Newton in the
1970s for about $50 apiece, said he had pretty much given up all hope of
seeing them again until a friend spotted the 1976 landscape online.

"I'd love to get them back but I'm old enough to know how fickle life is,"
he said.

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