Legal News

Brouhaha brewing over Ansel Adams negatives' authenticity

By Richard Binder

Rick Norsigian, a 64-year-old Fresno resident, announced on Tuesday that 60 glass negatives he purchased at a garage sale nearly a decade ago are early works of photographer Ansel Adams. An appraiser has valued the negatives at nearly $200 million. But the announcement has drawn fire from both the man who oversees the Adams trust and Adams' grandson.

William Turnage, the managing trustee of Adams' trust, called Norsigian and those working with him "a bunch of crooks" who "are pulling a big con job." Turnage also challenged the expertise of Norsigian's team, saying the only one with art credentials was a "so-called expert that nobody has ever heard of from Jackson Hole, Wyoming."

For his part, grandson Matthew Adams, having seen the negatives, said on Wednesday, "I don't think that they've proven that they are (authentic). ... And I don't know that you could ever prove that they are."

Norsigian's lawyer, Arnold Peter, said that based on the overwhelming evidence they gathered "no reasonable person would have any doubt that these, in fact, were the long-lost images of Ansel Adams."

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Also, see Techdirt for an interesting copyright perspective.

Full post as published by Legal Pad | LA on July 29, 2010 (boomark / email).