[shuttertalk]

I find it quite funny that a guy picked up 3 boxes of glass negatives 10 years ago for $45 at a garage sale, and now they believe it's actually the work of Ansel Adams, thought to have been lost in a darkroom fire in 1937. The kicker - they estimate it's now worth $200 million.

http://www.inquisitr.com/80389/ansel-ada...sale-pics/

If experts on the subject in Beverly Hills are correct in their assessment, three boxes of glass negatives purchased at a garage sale for $45 ten years ago were a very prudent investment.

Rick Norsigian, a painter from Fresno, bargained their original owner down from $100- but art appraisers are saying the set of negatives are actually worth $200m because they are early works of nature photographer Ansel Adams. If the estimates are correct, the pictures were believed to have been lost in a darkroom fire in 1937:

Moral of the story... don't despise garage sales.. and some people's trash may indeed be treasures.

[matthew]

I offered to sell one of my co-workers 65 of my negatives for $45 dollars, but he wouldn't take them.

(Of course, 36 transparencies from a roll of slide film costs me about 45 dollars…)

[Kombisaurus]

Try burning down your darkroom Matthew. That might be the key to unlock their true value...

Amazing story Jules!

[Zig]

Ha!
Agreed; great tale!

[Wedding Shooter]

What a great story - how would you like to be the guy who sold them for $45 reading the story :mad:

[matthew]

Ah, every silver lining has a cloud. Good thing I haven't burned my darkroom yet:

KTVU Channel 2 in Oakland broke the story on its evening news last night. As soon as a local woman named Miriam I. Walton saw the pictures, she recognized them as her Uncle Earl's. Earl Brooks was a lifelong resident of Fresno, where the 65 negatives were found, and often photographed at Yosemite. Mrs. Walton has four of his prints, one of which is nearly identical to one of the Norsigian pictures, with the same shadows and what look to be the same clouds after a few minutes of movement.

from The Online Photographer

[EnglishBob]

I'm a member of the Fresno camera club and one of our older members (88) has seen these negatives and also knew Ansel Adams in passing. He said when he saw the pictures that they didn't look anything like Adams work, he actually did have a few Adams originals, which he donated to the Museum/gallery in Yosemite "Before I die and someone throws them in the trash".