3rd Gee's Bend lawsuit filed

Alabama Press-Register reporter Ben Raines reported that Lucinda Pettway Franklin has filed suit against the Arnetts charging "the Arnetts stole the two oldest quilts known to come from Gee's Bend." Ms. Franklin claims the quilts were made by her great-grandmother, Sally Pettway when she was a slave. According the Raines' article:

"Franklin said Matt Arnett came to her home in Mobile and asked to borrow the quilts for one month so they could be photographed and included in a book about quilts. She remembered he became very excited when he saw the quilts for the first time.

That was two years ago. Since that time, Franklin said, Arnett has told her the quilts were destroyed in a fire, accidentally thrown away, ruined in a flood, lost or on his desk ready to be mailed to her."

Also from the the Raines' article:

"[Gary] Coulter, already representing the Arnetts in two other suits filed by Gee's Bend quilters in recent weeks, described the three complaints as "frivolous" and refused to say whether the Arnetts still had possession of Franklin's quilts."

[Source: Al.com, Press-Register, Saturday, June 23, 2007.]