There's a question as to how these, if they are indeed Adam's, ended up at a garage sale as supposedly at that point in time Adams was keeping all his old plates in a vault. He'd been through a bad fire situation. He'd already lost some stuff. These supposedly have fire damage. According to his heirs he may have been using some scorched plates as teaching aids. If so, these may be those early plates, which begs the question of how someone else got them and how they ended up being sold in a garage sale, since they were supposed to be with his other plates and he was apparently pretty careful about keeping his plates locked up at that point.
So you have these scenarios:
1. He gave them away after the fire. Not likely according to his heirs.
2. Someone pulled them from the fire and kept them illegally. Which is more likely, but the fact that someone salvaged them doesn't negate his estate's claim to ownership of those plates. If they were pulled from the fire site before he could get in there and look himself, then they're stolen and they should be returned to his heirs.
3. Adams died and somehow the plates were accidentally left in a storage warehouse and the warehouse later sold them to the person who's garage sale not knowing who's they were. Legal sale? Probably, enough of one for the guy who has them to be able to keep them, but that still doesn't mean these prints can be made and Adam's name can be used to sell them. His estate still owns the rights to his name and work, period.
His heirs made a formal statement today. They are planning on legal action over these plates. They don't believe this guy is right. They don't really believe they are his, but either way they don't like anyone using his name to sell the plates or prints because only they have the right to do that say it's his work, and sell things in his name.
I do foresee a huge legal battle coming over these plates. Not so much over whether or not they are authentic plates as over the illegal use of Ansel Adam's name being associated with them. It's his name being put on the prints and any auction information that they object to and they are apparently prepared to take legal action over this. It's apparently not the first time they've gone to battle over his name and work. They didn't hesitate to go there the last time and btw, they won. The judge was very clear on the point of who owned his name and any rights to prints of his works.
If these plates are Adams? I'll be very surprised if they aren't stuck in court for years to come. This garage sale guy thinks they're worth millions. He's not going to want to give them up even if he did purchase them under unfortunately shady circumstances. But he's going to have to prove that they were not stolen to keep them and if they are indeed Adam's prints. Either way, in the end he'll probably lose one way or the other.
Either he'll lose the plates to the Adams estate, because they are real, and likely stolen, or he'll keep them but he won't be able to claim them as Adams work if he wants to be able to keep them and make prints. The Adams heirs are seemingly very much prepared to make sure that if they are printed from that they do NOT have his brand on them and you can't just make prints with his name on them without the estate's consent even if they are real.
They may or may not be the rightful owners of these particular plates but they are the owners of his name, his brand and any rights to distribution of anything printed that's related to him. This guy could not make prints legally without their consent. He cannot claim these plates are Adam's without their agreement, display them as his work or do a book, none of that without permission from his estate. He can keep them, or sell them as plates that look a lot like Adam's work, but if he actually puts Adam's name on them, and he has already done so, then he's got trouble legally.
The big thing on these is that supposedly Ansel Adam's wife's handwriting is on some of them. His estate says not, that it's not hers, but that's still in question. The way I see it he handwriting that doesn't mean they are Adam's plates anyway. Adams did have students and friends that he apparently took on shoots with him. They probably stood side by side taking shots from the same camera at times. Maybe Adam's wife did catalog them, but that doesn't mean they are Adams own. These plates are not considered to be as good as his known work. That's a big issue.
The way I figure it? These could very well be one his student's work, used as an example of what "not" to do when taking and storing landscape pics. That was supposedly what Adams was doing with all the scorched plates at the time, using them as teaching tools. Along with his own he no doubt probably used his better students work to show to other students while teaching. That might explain why these ended up in said warehouse and later a garage sale. Adams might not have cared about them enough to save them in the vault with the rest of his work simply because they were not HIS. Yeah, they look like a lot like his style, but that may just be because he was teaching the person who made them. I mean think about it? Why wouldn't he have put these with the rest if he was so careful otherwise? Particularly after having lost some of his work to a fire already. It just doesn't all add up really when you think about it.
Bottom line either they are stolen or lost plates, his work, and they belong to his estate. Or they are not and they really aren't worth much at all.
Originally posted by sushi warrior He bought them from a garage sale, they are his... how would Ansel's estate have any claim to them?