Negatives turn positive

Los Angeles: A school district painter struck lucky after 65 glass negatives he bought for $45 (Dh165) from a garage sale turned out to be the work of American nature photographer Ansel Adams valued at $200 million.

Rick Norsigian bought the negatives at a garage sale in Fresno, California, about 10 years ago, bargaining the seller down from $70 to $45.

He kept them under a pool table at his home initially and then in a safe deposit box at a local bank when he realised they might be valuable.

His hunch was right and the negatives, showing images of Yosemite National Park, Fisherman's Wharf and other scenes in San Francisco, were this week declared by a Beverly Hills art appraiser to be the work of Adams and worth around $200 million. "When I heard that [figure], I got a little weak," Norsigian told reporters. A team of experts who spent about a year authenticating the negatives said they believe the compositions were taken between 1919 and the early 1930s.

Several of the negatives were charred on the edges after a fire damaged Adams' darkroom in 1937.

These negatives were previously believed among about 5,000 plates lost in that fire which destroyed about one-third of Adams' portfolio.