The "Real Garage Sale Find" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Just finished posting Ansel Adams photos to a story which more than likely you have already read.  While looking for photos to post to my Pinterest page on Ansel Adams, I came across a very unusual story about this really great garage sale find.  Seems this antique hunting fellow from California was rummaging through cardboard boxes at a garage sale in 2000 when he came across a box of 65 glass negatives that had been carefully wrapped in newspaper pages that were dated from 1942 and 1943.  Talked the seller down from $70 to $45 and took them home with him.  Found out pretty quick that the glass negatives were from no other than Ansel Adams and were the negatives that were allegedly lost in a darkroom fire in 1937.  It had been assumed that  about 5,000 glass negatives had perished.  Well, the guy hired a lawyer and a group of experts to examine the glass negatives and after six months of investigating, they claimed they were the real thing and perhaps worth $200 million.  What a bummer for the guy who sold them to him.  The way I read the stories I found online, he began to sell prints of the negatives, but then Adam's own grandson became skeptical.  Matthew Adams, president of the Ansel Adams Gallery in Yosemite National Park, California, said that  the writing on the sleeves of the negatives, which is supposed to be Ansel's wife's writing, is inconsistent with other samples of her handwriting and contains a number of misspellings of places in Yosemite that she knew how to spell.  Also, the edges of the negatives have marks on them that don't seem to match what marks should be on them if they were taken with Ansel's camera which he used during that time period.  

This is from a story that showed both the original and the
one from the garage sale.  Notice the poor quality that I obtained
when I tried to copy it.  This is the original Ansel Adams made
from his negative before it was lost in the fire.

Each side now has lawyers who will eventually eat up so much money that it may not be worth it on either side.  Matthew also said that you can't print from them since anything you make would have to say it is an interpretation of something that may be Ansel's.  Ansel Adams died in 1984 at the age of 82.  The Ansel Adam's Gallery is still producing prints made by a printer who was trained by Adams before he died.  The two original prints that I have were purchased for me by my wife from the gallery.  So now the guy who bought the negatives says he will no longer use Ansel Adams name or trademark in anything he sells.  But, wait!  Another new twist was added when Marion Walton, niece of Earl Brooks, said the photos produced from the garage sale negatives are from her uncle Earl.  

This is my copy from the article that is made using
the negative from the garage sale.  Notice any differences?
Very obvious, isn't it.  You may care to click on the photos,
but it won't make either photo too much better.

She noticed, while watching TV in her den, that the photo on TV of one of the negatives matched perfectly the "Jeffrey pine on Yosemite's Sentinel Dome" that was on the wall in front of her.  She called the TV station and soon a reporter was examining some of the 17 images that were posted for sale from the garage sale negatives.  They matched the photos that he had received from Marion.  Well, I hate to tell you this, but I couldn't find out what really happened, yet.  I'm still reading, but thought you should know that what you find at a garage sale may or may not be what you think it is and until you pay a ton of money to find out one way or another, you might as well enjoy the item yourself and forget about becoming a millionaire.  Just my opinion you realize.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.