Tale of Ansel Adams Negatives Grows Hazy

[maddezmom]

Tale of Ansel Adams Negatives Grows Hazy
By REYHAN HARMANCI
Published: August 13, 2010

SAN FRANCISCO — It was a dream come true, straight out of “Antiques Roadshow.” In 2000 Rick Norsigian, a painter in a school maintenance department, bought a box of photo negatives at a garage sale in Fresno, Calif., for $45. Last month, a decade later, he stood in a Beverly Hills art gallery to announce that a team of experts had concluded “beyond a reasonable doubt” that Ansel Adams had taken the pictures.

The gallery’s owner, David W. Streets, appraised the value of the 65 images, which the experts called “the lost negatives,” at $200 million, and the incident made news around the world.

But a fairy-tale ending is eluding Mr. Norsigian. A day after the announcement, Matthew Adams, a grandson of the photographer, disputed the finding, questioned the credentials of the experts and went so far as to call the whole business a “scam.”

A few days after that, an Oakland woman, Marian Walton, announced that she had a photo that was identical to one of the negatives. It had been taken, she said, not by Adams, the famous outdoors photographer, but by an uncle of hers, Earl Brooks.

And now, in the latest complication, court records reveal that Mr. Streets, who set the value for the negatives and is handling the related sales, is a convicted felon with a criminal record for petty theft and fraud in Louisiana and Kentucky. Though he says on his Web site, davidstreetsbeverlyhills.com, that he has 25 years of fine-art appraisal experience, two of Mr. Streets’s former employers say his true talent is in the embellishment of his credentials.

more:http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/14/arts/design/14photos.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

[SKKY]

1. I kinda hope it works out for Mr. Norsigian...

...from the interviews I've seen, he seems like a likeable guy who might deserve a bit of luck. This would be a good story.

[Loudmxr]

2. Yeah but even "lost" things belonged to someone sometime. They don't just get disowned.

[xchrom]

3. very interesting. nt