Ansel Adams glasnegativ köpt på loppis – värda 1,5 miljarder

Rick Norsigian var på loppmarknad och köpte då en kartong med glasplåtar innehållande bl.a. landskap. Senare visade det sig att det var Ansel Adams glasnegativ som varit försvunna efter en brand 1937.

PANEL OF EXPERTS CONFIRM THAT GLASS NEGATIVES FOUND AT GARAGE SALE WERE CREATED BY ANSEL ADAMS MYSTERY SOLVED!
DIGITAL AND LIMITED EDITION DARKROOM PRINTS OF NEVER BEFORE SEEN IMAGES NOW AVAILABLE ONLINE
A team of art and forensic experts have concluded an exhaustive three-year examination of 65 glass negatives purchased at a garage sale by a Fresno school district painter. The experts have emphatically determined that the negatives were in fact created by the iconic photographer Ansel Adams. The images are stunning and, Patrick Alt, one of the experts described them as follows: “In almost all of the photographs, the compositions are virtually flawless, truly being made by a photographer of singular vision and talent.”

In 1937, a fire ripped through Ansel Adams’ darkroom, destroying as many as 5,000 negatives. This loss represented one-third of his portfolio. Many of the negatives had never been developed into photographs. It was a heartbreaking loss for Adams’ and his wife, Virginia, and it has long been lamented by art lovers who wanted to trace how Adams found his ultimate artistic voice in the initial phase of his career. Historians assumed that the images and evidence of his early career were simply lost forever.

This critical void in Adams’ collection of photographs continued until Spring of 2000. At a garage sale in Fresno, California, Rick Norsigian, a painter for the Fresno school district, chanced upon two boxes of antique glass negatives. He paid $45 for the negatives. The evidence that these negatives were created by Adams is overwhelming:

• Michael Nattenberg and Marcel Matley, two independent hand writing experts confirmed that hand writing on the envelopes in which the negatives were found belonged to Virginia Adams.

• George Wright, a meteorological expert compared one of Adams’ most famous photographs with one found in the Norsigian Collection. By looking at the cloud formation, the snow on the mountains and the shadow cast by a tree, Wright determined that the two photographs were taken on the same day at approximately the same time.

• Bob Moeller, the 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.”

• Patrick Alt, a large format photographer with over 40 years of experience, meticulously refuted each of the questions raised and confirmed the authencity of the negatives

• In order to test the strength of the overall evidence, former FBI Agent and Section Chief Thomas Knowles and former Assistant United States Attorney and Legal/Supreme Court Reporter for ABC News Manny Medrano were asked to examine all of the evidence including the reports of the five retained experts. Both Knowles and Medrano declared that the evidence was sufficient to prove beyond a reasonable doubt, the highest standard used in United States courts, that the glass negatives were created by Ansel Adams.