Confirmed: Fresno man's negatives are Ansel Adams'

[ERIC]

Confirmed: Fresno man's negatives are Ansel Adams'

Posted at 02:33 PM on Tuesday, Jul. 27, 2010
By Chris Collins / The Fresno Bee


A trove of old glass negatives bought by a Fresno painter for $45 at a garage sale a decade ago has been authenticated as the work of iconic photographer Ansel Adams and are worth at least $200 million, a lawyer said today.

Attorney Arnold Peter said a team of experts has concluded the 65 negatives are from the early work of Adams, one of California's foremost nature photographers. It was believed the work had been destroyed in a fire in 1937.

Rick Norsigian, a 64-year-old painter for Fresno Unified School District and an avid antiques collector, said that after he bought the glass negatives, he noticed they resembled Adams' photographs of Yosemite National Park. He spent years consulting experts in an attempt to prove they were authentic despite repeated claims from Adams' family that they were not the work of the famed photographer.

Eventually, Norsigian hired Peter to assemble a team of experts, who announced the findings of their final report at a news conference this morning at a Beverly Hills art gallery.
"These photographs are really the missing link," Peter said today. "They really fill the void in Ansel Adams' early career."

Adams is best known...


Read more: http://www.fresnobee.com/2010/07/27/202 ... z0uvnb3BK0

[treadwell]

Hope he hasn't spent that two hundred million just yet.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/14/arts/ ... gewanted=1

[BSquared]

Hope he hasn't spent that two hundred million just yet.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/14/arts/ ... gewanted=1

Yes, it'll be interesting to see how this plays out over the next few months.