BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — A trove of old glass negatives bought at a garage sale for $45 have been authenticated as the lost work of famed nature photographer Ansel Adams and are worth at least $200 million, an attorney for the owner said Tuesday.
A team of experts concluded after an exhaustive, six-month examination that the 65 negatives are Adams’ early work, which were believed to have been destroyed in a 1937 fire at his Yosemite National Park studio, Arnold Peter said.
Adams is best known for his striking black-and-white photographs, mainly landscapes, of the American West. He died in 1984 at 82.
Rick Norsigian, a construction worker and painter, said he bought the negatives 10 years ago at a Fresno garage sale after bargaining down the seller to $45.
“When I heard that $200 million (figure), I got a little weak,” he told a news conference.
Jack Hanna wards off charging grizzly bear
TV host and zookeeper Jack Hanna says he took his own advice and used pepper spray on a grizzly headed toward him.
The Columbus Zoo keeper said he was with his wife and other hikers in Montana’s Glacier National Park on Saturday when they saw the mother bear and two large cubs coming toward them. Hanna and the others moved slowly back up the trail to a clearing and stood still while the mother and one cub passed by.
Hanna said the other cub, weighing about 125 pounds, charged toward the hikers. Hanna sprayed the bear in the face, and it fled.
Hanna had recently filmed a message for the National Park Service encouraging hikers to carry pepper spray.
Singer considers run for Haitian president
Singer Wyclef Jean is considering a run for president of Haiti but has not decided whether to seek a five-year term as leader of the quake-ravaged nation, the musician’s family said Monday.
There have been rumors for some time the Haitian-born entertainer might enter the 2010 presidential contest, ever since his 2007 appointment as ambassador-at-large for the Caribbean nation by President Rene Preval, who cannot seek re-election.
Jean, 37, was born on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince but left the hemisphere’s poorest country as a child and grew up in New York City’s borough of Brooklyn.
The singer has been active in recent years in raising money through his Yele Haiti Foundation. The organization was widely criticized for alleged financial irregularities after the Jan. 12 quake, when scrutiny revealed it had paid Jean to perform at fundraising events and bought advertising air time from a television station he co-owns.
The organization hired a new accounting firm after the allegations surfaced.
Carell leaving ‘Office”
An NBC executive said “The Office” star Steve Carell has consistently told NBC he’s leaving after this coming season. The actor’s seven-year run as erratic Dunder Mifflin boss Michael Scott will end when his contract expires in 2011, NBC said, but the show will go on.
Carell, 46, who’s become a busy big-screen actor during his “Office” tenure, has said in interviews he plans to leave the series to better balance his work and family life.
Daniel Craig on for ‘Dragon Tattoo’
Daniel Craig, the current star of the James Bond films, has signed on for the English-language remake of “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.”
Sony Pictures confirmed that Craig is taking on the role of journalist Mikael Blomkvist in the thriller based on the first novel in the best-selling series from the late author Stieg Larsson.
Directed by David Fincher, the film is due in theaters next year.
Gibson talks to police about extortion claims
A Los Angeles County sheriff’s spokesman says actor Mel Gibson met with detectives Sunday to discuss his claims that ex-girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva attempted to extort money from him.
The sheriff’s department is also investigating claims by Grigorieva that Gibson abused her during a January confrontation.
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