Posted on 07/27/2010 12:45:30 PM PDT by Daffynition
os Angeles, California (CNN) -- 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.
"It truly is a missing link of Ansel Adams and history and his career," said David W. Streets, the appraiser and art dealer who is hosting an unveiling of the photographs at his Beverly Hills, California, gallery Tuesday.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
it would be a decent thing to do
other wise i bet they feel like slashing their wrists
That’s a lot of capital gains taxes.
I’m sure that Bamster and Crew will be expecting their “Voluntary Donation” or else arrest the poor guy for 10 years of unreported income.
That’s what I was thinking too. I wonder if he remembers where he got them. The times I have been to garage sales, we go to a bunch, and I couldn’t remember 10 days on let alone 10 years on where the houses were located.
So any Ansel Adams foundation or heir does not own them? Interesting
10% is still $20 million. So not bad.
Somtimes, you ‘don’t know what you got till it’s gone!’ to quote an 80’s hair-metal band, Cinderella.
What is Caveat Emptor for ‘Seller beware’.
At a yard estate sale I rescued dozens of WWII letters from a military locker that someone else had purchased. He didn’t want to keep the letters & the sellers were going to dump them. They were love letters between a captain and his wife, from 1942 to 1945.
They are now in the Library of Congress.
$200 million for a collection of Ansel Adams negative plates?? IMPOSSIBLE.
Please be aware that that quote is probably from the auctioneer who hopes to sell them (with a 15%-20% commission)
And by throwing that number out there he draws attention to the photos which drives up the number of bidders and potentially the price.
$200 million for a collection of Ansel Adams negative plates?? IMPOSSIBLE.”
http://www.allposters.com/-sp/Ansel-Adams-Wilderness-California-USA-Posters_i4024392_.htm
Unfortunately in this litigious society the sellers , instead of being grateful, would turn around and sue you for the entire amount.
I’m sure there are lawyers who would happily line up to take the case.
“I’m sure that Bamster and Crew will be expecting their “Voluntary Donation” or else arrest the poor guy for 10 years of unreported income.”
That would be know as their “Patriotic Donation”. What are you a hateful capitalist or something? Get on the envy train. Soon to be high speed envy train.
Actually, it woudl be the opposite..that manyn (65) coming on the market at once..would tend to depress prices..IMHO, he’d have been better off feeding them in..say, sell one or two a year..
Hell, I’d throw the guy a mil.
“Somtimes, you ‘don’t know what you got till it’s gone!’ to quote an 80’s hair-metal band, Cinderella.”
Believe your reference is Joni Mitchell’s “Big Yellow Taxi”. Just sayin.
That color photograph shows that Adams was a master of early color as well as lighting and composition...amazing. You have to wonder what he would have done with digital DSLR’s and digital photo processing with the eye he had!
There is a question as to their authenticity. Apparently some of the sites are misspelled and the numbering system is different. This according to the current story on msn.com
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