Shia LaBeouf says neo-Nazis stole his art project in Tennessee

Months after an anti-Donald Trump flag was stolen from from a field in Greeneville, Tenn., actor Shia LaBeouf and fellow art project collaborators on Monday outed the Tennessee-based "neo-Nazis" they're accusing of committing the crime.

LaBeouf, along with artists Nastja Säde Rönkkö and Luke Turner, erected a "He Will Not Divide Us" flag in a field in Greeneville in March after the project was moved from New York City and Albuquerque.

The project, called HEWILLNOTDIVIDE.US, was launched in New York City on Trump's Jan. 20 inauguration date and featured a 24-hour live web stream outside the Museum of the Moving Image, where participants could recite the phrase into a camera.

Once it reached Greeneville in early March, where LaBeouf, Rönkkö & Turner planned to fly the flag for the duration of Trump's presidency, the project had become a live stream simply showing the flag and sky behind it. The group had not disclosed the flag's location.

But in the early hours of March 10, Turner said, the flag was stolen. The video stream showed the "He Will Not Divide Us" flag coming down — though it didn't picture the perpetrator — and a red "Make America Great Again" ball cap and pro-Trump T-shirt being raised in its place, said Rachel Bewley, who owns the property.

The T-shirt depicted Trump as Pepe, an animated frog frequently used in racist memes online by members of the so-called "alt-right."

LaBeouf, fellow artists publicly identify Tennessee couple

Two individuals the artists identified as a Kingston-based married couple posted photos and other messages online bragging about stealing the flag, which users on image-sharing forum 4chan successfully located through their own investigation.

Turner said law enforcement has also identified the couple, but "nothing has happened" and no charges against them have been filed.

"It has not been a secret who they are, because they identified themselves," Turner said.

In a statement LaBeouf, Rönkkö & Turner released on Monday identifying the couple, the trio wrote that they "feel morally compelled to name them, as the circumstances mean this is a matter of wider public safety."

"Disturbingly, the authorities in Tennessee have so far failed to show the will to bring the perpetrators of this hate crime to justice, despite boasts online about their actions, their anti-Semitic motivation, and the fact that they lied to police," according to the statement.

In an episode of Knights of the Round podcast, the woman admits to lying to law enforcement and discusses traveling to Greeneville to find the flag. She describes herself as a 4chan "troll" who wanted to take part in removing the flag after learning about the efforts online to locate it and her proximity to Greeneville.

Based on online posts attributed to the woman and a search of a Tennessee Board of Nursing license database using her maiden name, the female whom LaBeouf, Turner & Rönkkö say took part in the flag heist is a nurse in the state.

In screenshots supplied by the artist trio, which Turner said show posts from the perpetrators on chat app Discord and on Twitter, the pair admits to their involvement in finding and stealing the flag and post photos of it in their possession.

The woman identifies herself as a Nazi and talks about hating Jews, denying the Holocaust and discusses her work as a nurse.

Archived posts on the man's Facebook page show a photo he posted of the logo of the Traditionalist Worker Party, one of the groups that took part in an Oct. 28 "White Lives Matter" rally in Shelbyville.

The Southern Poverty Law Center describes TWP as a white nationalist hate group.

The Greene County Sheriff's Office didn't immediately respond to a USA TODAY NETWORK - Tennessee inquiry about the status of the case or whether the department is investigating it, though Turner said the artists had been in touch with its detectives for months and has reached out to the FBI in Johnson City.

Reach Natalie Allison at nallison@tennessean.com. Follow her on Twitter at @natalie_allison.