Apparently, Elvis looked like he needed saving.
A driver in Washington County who saw a portrait of the rock 'n' roll icon sitting at the end of the driveway thought it was there to be tossed out, so he picked it up and gave it to his sister, an Elvis fan, according to the Sheriff's Office.
Trouble was, the Oakdale woman discovered from news reports that the painting had been reported stolen from the house in West Lakeland Township.
"She was embarrassed," said sheriff's detective Tim Harris, who said Wednesday that the woman notified the Sheriff's Office and returned the painting undamaged. No charges will be filed, he said. The painting by the late Peter Bue, known for his murals outside Minneapolis restaurants, coffee shops and stores, was a depiction of Presley's face from the 1950s movie "King Creole." It disappeared the evening of Jan. 30 when owner Jon Kittelsen mounted it on a saw horse outside to attract guests for a business meeting that he and his wife, Heather, were hosting. They recently had moved from Minneapolis to a Washington County hobby farm. "We absolutely won't do this again," Heather Kittelsen said Wednesday. The painting was in "perfect shape" and back at their house, she said.
Bue, also known as Fucci, was friends with Jon Kittelsen, an Elvis fan who owns two other Bue paintings of Presley. Bue died in 2005.
The Kittelsens told the Sheriff's Office the painting is worth $15,000. The artist's wife, Laura Kroeten-Bue, said she thought it had been appraised in Minneapolis.
Kroeten-Bue said that her husband also painted portraits of screen stars Marlon Brando, Audrey Hepburn and Angelina Jolie.
Harris said the painting was recovered Tuesday evening. His advice for anyone intending to put a prized possession outside:
