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CHELMSFORD, Mass. — It's been three years since sisters Lisa Kauhl and Stephanie McElligott have seen one of their late mother's paintings, but a new lead could bring their search to a close.

The painting, which features a very young Kauhl clad in a yellow bonnet bending over the ocean waves, was sold at an estate sale in January 2019, when parents Paula and Howard Chechik moved out of their North Chelmsford home to an assisted living community.

Kauhl, who helped to clean out the Muirfield Way home in the days prior to the tag sale, said she was compelled to take a photo of the painting when she spotted it in her parents' basement. She was halfway home to Windham, N.H., the day before the sale when she remembered the painting was still in the house, but given the snowy forecast predicted the next day, she didn't think many people would turn out.

"And when I went, of course it was gone," Kauhl said.

The hunt began soon after, starting "aggressively" at first, McElligott said, but reigniting recently after Paula Chechik died in February of last year.

Since then, Kauhl, McElligott and other family and friends turned to social media to track down their mother's work, which dates back to 1969. McElligott's July 17 post on Nextdoor — a neighborhood messaging platform — received an outpouring of supportive messages, as well as new information that could help in the search.

Lowell resident Russell MacDonald said he thinks he saw the painting at a Chelmsford yard sale two months ago. He wrote in an online message that he regrets not picking up the painting but that "we had enough of beach themes already."

Now, with the community aware and invigorated, Kauhl said she hopes it ends up in the family again.

"I feel like people find diamond rings and things after like 50 years, so I feel like there is hope for me to get this back," Kauhl said. "I feel like there's a million pictures of kids at the beach, but I feel like if you see it, it's very distinct."

Upscale Tag Sales, the North Shore-based company that ran the estate sale back in 2019, accepted cash and credit cards, but they do not have the names of those who purchased anything, said co-owner Gina Abbott. The family should have gotten a list of all items sold, Abbott said, but no identifying information on the buyers.

With technology, Abbott said she and her mother, who manages the company with her, can more easily keep track of who buys what. Because it's been a few years, Abbott said they no longer have any physical receipts. She doesn't know for how much the painting sold.

Before each sale, Upscale Tag Sales advertises to more than 50,000 local people and posts on Craigslist, emails residents and puts up signs across towns. In its nearly 15 years in operation, this is the first time it has ever tried to find an item sold at an estate.

Abbott said the painting isn't "missing" per se, but was rather sold and is owned by someone else. She shared the picture of the painting on Facebook to help spread the word.

"I was hoping that mentioning the sentimental value of the painting would really connect to somebody's heart," Abbott said. "The person that purchased the painting spent the money to have it framed and it's hanging in their home, it's really hard to get that off somebody's wall unless we can tug at their heartstrings a little bit."

McElligott and Kauhl said they don't blame the company for having sold the painting, citing that it was simply an "oversight" on the family's part to have not secured the painting before the sale. McElligott said Upscale Tag Sales has been "super helpful" in trying to locate the painting.

At the bottom of the painting, Paula Chechik dated and signed the work "Paula 69." The painting, made of either oil or acrylic, is based on a family photo taken on Cape Cod when Kauhl was about 3 or 4 years old. Chechik took up painting several years later, but this is one of the only ones in which she painted a family member, Kauhl said.

The daughters, their brother and their father all have some of Chechik's other paintings in their homes, but none hold the same particular sentimental value as the missing one.

"Mom had an amazing gift for painting," McElligott, of Westford, said. "They're all lovely, but I think this one obviously, for my sister, has special meaning ... and of course, (it's) more special now that mom's not with us, so we'd love to find it."

Kauhl said they would be "more than happy to pay someone for the picture," because she and the rest of her family would just like to have it in their hands for good.

"I don't expect someone to give it to me," Kauhl said. "I just really want it back."

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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