Garage sale bargain

[Gob]

An American collector has become an overnight multimillionaire after a set of 65 glass negatives he picked up at a garage sale turned out to be genuine Ansel Adams works.

Rick Norsigian, a school district painter and collector, bought the photographic plates in Fresno, California, for $US45 ($50) a decade ago. Now they have been authenticated and are valued at $US200 million, he told a press conference.

"The experts have emphatically determined that the negatives were in fact created by the iconic photographer Ansel Adams," said Norsigian, who also released the findings on his website.

Norsigian's lawyer Arnold Peter said the authentication represented a number of challenges, involving experts not only in photography but handwriting for notations and meteorology for evidence of weather at the time Adams took his famed landscape pictures.

"There is no definitive authority charged with authenticating photographs and unlike a painting there is no signature linking the work to the artist," Peter said.

"So, we decided to apply the highest possible evidentiary standard we could think of. Every individual who has actually examined all the evidence we have gathered has come to the same conclusion - these are in fact the works of Ansel Adams."

The specialists assembled by Norsigian all backed the claims.

Michael Nattenberg and Marcel Matley, two independent handwriting experts said that handwriting on the envelopes in which the negatives were found belonged to Adams's wife, Virginia.

George Wright, a meteorological expert, concluded that one of the pictures found in the Norsigian negatives was taken on the same day and time as one of Adams's famous images.

Robert Moeller, former curator of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts concluded: "After more than six months of close study, it is my opinion, within a high degree of probability, that the images under consideration were produced by Ansel Adams."

Art appraiser David Streets said he estimated the negatives' value at a minimum of $US200 million, based on current sales of Adams prints and the potential for selling reproductions.

Adams, who died in 1984, was believed to have lost many of his negatives in 1937 in a darkroom fire. The blaze destroyed as many as 5000 negatives, or about one-third of his portfolio. Many of the negatives had never been developed into photographs.

Adams was one of the foremost nature photographers of his era, known for his images of the American west, especially Yosemite National Park.

Asked in an interview with CNN what he planned to do with the cash, Norsigian said family and vacation would be high on the list.

"Well, number one, of course, I'm going to take care of my family, my grandkids," he said.

"And then I'm going to ... my wife's been putting up with me for all these years and I want to get out in the summer and hopefully get to the coast."

http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/art ... utostart=1

[rubato]

The 'overnight' in this case taking 10 years and counting; and he hasn't yet realised any cash.

Where do the headline writers get their brash freedom from reality?

yrs,
rubato

[loCAtek]

As much as I like Antiques Roadshow, they always stipulate that 'if' the items were sold 'at auction' you might get the dollar amount they were appraised for.

Trying to sell them any other way, likely won't result in any where near top dollar. Way back, I knew an acquaintance who was trying for months to sell a few lessor known Erte prints. Last I heard, even with newspaper ads, she still hadn't sold them for the price she was asking.

Look at the reality show- Pawn Star$: people bring all kinds of mediocre to great finds, that while appraised by experts as highly valuable; they can't sell them for that much.

[SisterMaryFellatio]

why does this never happen to me? Also why do I not have a trust fund?

[loCAtek]

You're diggin' in the wrong bins, luv

[Guinevere]

And the heirs -- who control the Adams name and copyright, will probably end up suing if this guy decides to sell his "Ansel Adams" works. So no, sorry, he's not a gazillionaire. Although his lawyers might end up with some large cash in their pockets

[Crackpot]

Only if he decides to make prints. I imagine the originals would be free to sell at will.

[The Hen]

I'd love to find a fortune unexpectedly.

I am reminded of the film "Who the F*ck is Jackson Pollock". I'd give Gob's left testicle to uncover my retirement fund in a garage sale.

(OK. Possibly I wouldn't knacker him for a fortune.)

[Crackpot]

There was a house down in Warren that upon it's demolition was found to have it's walls filled with silver coins.

[SisterMaryFellatio]

Oh i would knacker Sean no probs,......then buy him a you beaut new one! lol

[Guinevere]

Only if he decides to make prints. I imagine the originals would be free to sell at will.

The point is they will challenge anything he tries to sell as Ansel Adams' work-- whether original or prints.

I love a good garage sale find. I'm currently sleeping in a beautiful handmade, solid oak, king-sized sleigh bed, signed and dated, that I grabbed for $150. It's work more like 20 times that!

[Big RR]

Challenge in what way Guin? I imagine they could say he is misrepresenting the plates as those of Ansel Adams, but proper authentication should dispose of this. Likewise, they could possibly say the plates are stolen goods, but it would be difficuklt to maintain unless there was a record of the theft at the time they allege the theft occurred. Otherwise, I would think the estate could do little. I specifically cannot see any copyright action as he is now the owner of the plates; sale of an original work one owns does not constitute copyright infringement.

[The Hen]

There was a house down in Warren that upon it's demolition was found to have it's walls filled with silver coins.

I always thought it would be nice to make my fortune form 'lost money'.

You know, all the coins you find at the back of sofas, still in old trouser pockets, down drains etc. The bits and bobs no one gives a shit about.

I always thought if I could have one (selfish) wish, it would be to have all the 'lost money' deposited in an account of mine. But Bill Gates got there first.

[rubato]

Ansel Adams artworks are primarily the prints, not the negatives he made them from.

A large part of his value as an artist lies in the technique which connects those two things.

I'm sure that they have value, if genuine, but they are not finished works of art by Adams.

yrs,
rubato

[The Hen]

Here is another rich turn up for the books.

A pair of vases, 1/2 a million quid.

For years they had been left sitting on a bedroom shelf and not given a thought.

But a pair of Chinese vases found in a retired couple's modest home have just fetched £500,000 at auction.

The Qianlong dynasty porcelain pieces were given as a wedding present by the vendor's father and no one knew their value.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z0vIXxlYJ4

[loCAtek]

<Loca kicks self> ...should NOT have played with, and discounted Great Gran'po's revolutionary war trumpet.

[loCAtek]

You're diggin' in the wrong bins, luv

No wait, that came out wrong ...Pa advocated what he called 'junkin', or in contemporary lingo 'dumpster diving' ...you never know what you're gonna find, it may be valuable someday !



no, I'm not kiddin', look at the sig line...