It was ten years ago. In 2000, working-строитель Norsigian Rick (Rick Norsigian), fascinated by painting at a garage sale in Fresno (CA), pretty bargain, bought for $ 45. a collection of 65 old glass negatives. Negatives interested Norsigian beautiful views of Yosemite National Park. Buyer-счастливчик and had no idea what a treasure fell into his hands: the photographer was a famous photographer Ansel Adams (Ansel Adams).

the First suspicions concerning the authorship of images began to appear in Norsidzhyana two years after purchase. He passed the negatives to the Bank for safekeeping and hired expert Peter Arnold (Arnold Peter) to attribute images.

Examination yielded stunning results. A group of specialists has been established that these 65 negatives relate to the early works of Ansel Adams, previously thought lost in a fire in a photographer's Studio in Yosemite in 1937.

Expert David Streets (David W. Streets), based on current prices of the works of Adams at auctions (at the recently held Sotheby's auction of works from the Polaroid collection, the Adams "end of the snowstorm" was sold for 772,5 thousand dollars.), evaluated the entire collection of negatives about $ 200 million.

Two experts-почерковедов found that the envelopes are made from Manila hemp, in which the negatives were stored, was signed by the hand of the wife of the photographer of Virginia.

a Scientist, a meteorologist, having studied the form of clouds, snow and shadows on the two pictures (the first was from long-known pictures by Adams, and the second — from collection negatives Norsidzhyana) came to the conclusion that the pictures were taken in one place and in one day.

the Negatives of such a format (8. 5x6. 5 inches) Ansel used for photos in 1920-30-е years. Besides the images show the places where Adams worked for sure: Yosemite, Carmel, Marina San-Франциско and Baker beach-Бич.

Some of the negatives charred at the edges, which once again confirms the hypothesis that they could miracle survive after a fire in 1937 at Villa Adams. Experts suggest that the surviving photographs, the photographer could take with them to Pasadena, where he went in 1941 to teach photography.

the Man who sold the Norsidzhyanu these negatives in 2000 for $ 45, told the Builder that he bought them in 1940-е years in the storage of harvested property in Los-Анджелесе. After authorship and the real price of the negatives were installed, Norsigian tried to contact the original owner, but the search did not yield any result.

an Exhibition of 17 photographs, printed on these negatives is supposed to be held in October in State University Fresno. About the history of the incredible purchase you plan to make a documentary.

the Material was prepared by Maria Onuchina, AI

Sources: artdaily.com, artinvestment.ru