Rick Norsigian's hobby of picking through piles of unwanted items at garage sales in search of antiques has paid off for the Fresno, California, painter.
Two small boxes he bought 10 years ago for $45 -- negotiated down from $70 -- are now estimated to be worth at least $200 million, according to a Beverly Hills art appraiser.
Those boxes contained 65 glass negatives created by famed nature photographer Ansel Adams in the early period of his career. Experts believed the negatives were destroyed in a 1937 darkroom fire that destroyed 5,000 plates.
Full story here. My question, however, is whether the "experts" cited in the article are in fact experts on Ansel Adams' work. A quick search on the names mentioned suggests that they may be prominent and successful as dealers and photographers, but there was a worrisome lack of specific expertise in the authentication of Adams photographs. Where are the endorsements by curators, by academics, and by Adams descendants and students?
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