by Miserere

But as we all know, one man’s rubbish is another man’s treasure. In this case, it’s Rick Norsigian’s treasure. Some 10 years ago he bought a bunch of photographic plates at a garage sale for $45…after haggling down from the $70 asking price. Turns out these plates are some of Ansel Adams’s thought-to-be long lost plates that perished in a fire that consumed the photographer’s darkroom in 1937. In total, Mr Norsigian has 65 plates, which have now been valued at $200 million. That’s not a typo.

See more photos from this stash in this CNN slideshow.

On the flip side, Ansel Adams’s grandson, Matthew Adams, doesn’t think they’re his grandfather’s photographs; neither does Bill Turnage, managing director of the Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust, who is seeking legal counsel and might sue Mr Norsigian for using a copyrighted name for commercial purposes. Read more here.

UPDATE 2010/07/30: KTVU in Oakland, California, say they’ve found the real photographer behind the mysterious plates: Uncle Earl. You just can’t make this stuff up, can you?

UPDATE 2010/08/24: The Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust has sued Mr Norsigian in an attempt to stop him from selling prints and posters from his negatives, to which he’s adding the Ansel Adams name.

Related posts:

1. Making Photographs