The stolen chair dedicated to Confederate President Jefferson Davis has been recovered in New Orleans, and the owners of a tattoo parlor in the “Big Easy” have been arrested on related felony charges, though their attorneys are calling their arrests “a mistake.”

The bottom line: The Richmond-based United Daughters of the Confederacy never had to pay the unusual ransom demanded for their carved limestone chair — raising a banner bearing a quote from former Black Liberation Army member Assata Shakur.

In a 12-month period in which at least 160 Confederate memorials were taken down in Richmond and cities across the country, the story of the chair theft garnered widespread attention.

The ornate, 500-pound Jefferson Davis Memorial Chair was snatched from the Confederate section of the Old Live Oak Cemetery in Selma, Ala., early on March 19. The chair, owned by the UDC, had been in place for nearly 120 years.

A still-anonymous group calling itself White Lies Matter sent a ransom message April 5 to the UDC and media outlets including the Richmond Free Press. The message stated the group had possession of the chair valued at $500,000. The message also included a demand that the UDC hang the banner outside its Richmond headquarters on Arthur Ashe Boulevard on April 9, the 156th anniversary of Gen. Robert E. Lee’s surrender of the Confederate Army to the Union at Appomattox in 1865, ending the Civil War.

White Lies Matter stated the banner should read: “The rulers of this country have always considered their property more important than our lives.” The quote is attributed to Ms. Shakur, who was convicted in 1973 in the slaying of a New Jersey state trooper. She daringly escaped from prison in 1979 and successfully made it to Cuba, where she continues to live.

The group claimed it would turn the chair into a toilet by boring a hole in it if the banner wasn’t posted. In a subsequent email to some media, the group acknowledged that photos showing the chair with a hole in the seat were really that of a model chair the group had created.

The UDC never responded to the emails, according to White Lies Matter, and officials at the national headquarters remained mum. Pat Godwin, president of the UDC’s Selma chapter, said the organization had no intention of complying with the demand.

A $5,000 reward posted for the chair’s recovery produced a tip that it was being held in a storage room at a New Orleans tattoo parlor nearly five hours away from Selma.

The chair ultimately was found April 8 on a New Orleans street, about a mile from the tattoo parlor, after someone sent the GPS coordinates of the chair’s location to the UDC.

Police arrested tattoo parlor owners Jason Warnick, 32, and Kathryn Diionno, 24, on April 8, while Stanley Pate, 34, was arrested on Saturday. Each was charged with a single count of felony possession of stolen property. All have been released from custody on their own recognizance.

Back in Selma, Dallas County District Attorney Michael W. Jackson said those in custody would face additional charges of extortion and theft in Alabama.

“This was stolen from a cemetery, and you don’t want to encourage young people to steal and that theft is OK,” he told reporters.

Attorneys for Mr. Warnick and Ms. Diionno issued statements denying their clients were involved with White Lies Matter or any other political activist group.

“They are small business owners who have been struggling through the coronavirus pandemic like everyone else with a business,” stated attorney Michael Kennedy, the spokesman for their defense team.

“Obviously, they’re upset to have been arrested and to have their names associated with anything like this. It comes down to just a mistake, clearly an unfortunate one, but a mistake,” he said.

Ms. Godwin said the UDC is considering whether to return the chair to the cemetery or relocate it to a more protected location.