Ansel Adams Photographs Worth $200 Million Found At Garage Sale

By Soumitra Mondal, Gaea News Network
Tuesday, July 27, 2010

New York (GaeaTimes.com) - A man bought a box of shabby glass negatives for $45, negotiating down from $70. Now he gets more than $200 million for them. It seems like a fairytale of yard sale aficionados came true.

Rick Norsigian, a painter in Fresno, California bought 65 negatives in a yard sale 10 years ago. The negatives were in deterring condition. Self convinced that they are important he took them to an expert. It took ten years to develop them. Photographs which developed were recognized as the works of Ansel Adams.

Ansel Adams is known as The Father of Photography in America. The photographs dated between 1919 and 1930 were taken before Mr Adams become famous. They will now be exhibited at Art appraisal David W. Streets’ Beverly Hills Gallery from Tuesday.

The 65 negatives are 6.5 X 8.5 inch glass plates. They are among the 5000 negatives which were believed to be destroyed in a 1937 dark room fire. The negatives had pictures of well known Yosemite landscapes, boats and San Francisco landmarks.

According to David W. Streets they show the evolution of Ansel as an artist and nurturing of his genius. This is the missing link about the history of his career. Art expert Alt mentioned they show his development as an artist as some of the images are not so good to the images which were excellent during same period of time. Art expert Roeller says that as the places shown in the images were well known to him it signifies they were created by Adams.

The negatives were kept in manila envelopes wrapped in newspaper carries notations of Virginia Adams the wife of Mr Ansel Adams. The handwriting on the envelopes were matched with the samples provided by Adams’ grandson. The silver plating of the negatives also confirms them to be dated during 1920.

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