Thursday, August 5, 2010
$45 of Negatives From Garage Sale is Really Worth $200 Million (Update: Or Maybe Not)
Posted by Lee Yuan Sheng in "Digital Home News" @ 09:30 AM
"Ten years ago Rick Norsigian, a painter for the Fresno school district, bought a set of 65 large-format glass negatives at a garage sale for $45. Experts now say the collection is worth $200 million, as the photographs turned out to have been taken by none else than Ansel Adams himself."
Well, someone gets lucky with some negatives from a garage sale. Maybe it's time I start trawling the garage sales! It's still up in the air, as his grandson is disputing the claim. For those of you wondering who Ansel Adams is, he is considered to be one of the leading pioneers of modern photography. Much of what he worked on (some with collaborators) form the basis for photography till today.
Update: This is what happens when I don't visit TOP for a week: Apparently there's a strong argument that it isn't Ansel Adam's work, and it's actually taken by someone else.