Man buys photos at garage sale for $45, worth 200 million!

Tuesday, never before seen photos from Ansel Adams early career will be on display in Beverly Hills, California; what is more amazing is how the photos were discovered.

Rick Norsigian's from Fresno, California purchased two small boxes of glass negatives at a garage sale several years ago for $45 after negotiating down from $70. Norsigian discovered this week that they are Ansel Adams originals and worth at least $200 million, according to a Beverly Hills art appraiser. The images were thought to have been destroyed along with 5,000 other glass plates in a 1937 fire.

The images are from the early years of Ansel Adams, the famous nature photographer.

Scroll down to see photos of/by Ansel Adams.

"It truly is a missing link of Ansel Adams and history and his career," said David W. Streets who will unveil the photos Tuesday at his gallery.

The Ansel Adams photos were taken between 1919 and the early 1930s. This was before Adams became famous in the 1940s.

"This is going to show the world the evolution of his eye, of his talent, of his skill, his gift, but also his legacy," Streets said. "And it's a portion that we thought had been destroyed in the studio fire."

The glass plates measure 6.5 x 8.5 and are photos of the Yosemite landscapes and San Francisco landmarks.

Norsigian said that man who sold them to him told him that he bought them in Los Angeles in the 1940s at a warehouse salvage sale.


Source: CNN

 

Ouch. I'd hate to be the guy who sold that at the garage sale. That's a serious suicide-level mistake right there.

 

I would have been pissed! Did the guy that sold it even know?

 

Know that they were worth 200 million? Probably not, given that he tried to sell them for a mere $70. :/