US painter gets lucky with Ansel Adams' photo negatives worth US$200 mil.

Rick Norsigian bought the negatives at a garage sale in Fresno, California, about 10 years ago, bargaining the seller down from US$70 to US$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 realized 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 US$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 in which destroyed about one-third of Adams' portfolio.

Two handwriting experts also confirmed that handwriting on the envelopes in which the negatives were found belonged to Adams' wife Virginia.

Norsigian said the value of the negatives was only part of the appeal. “This to me is so gratifying to have a piece of history to share this with everyone and to kind of prove that well, maybe, a construction worker/painter can be right,” he said.

“But I'm just glad everything has worked out and we get to celebrate Ansel Adams' kind of rebirth.”

Adams was known for his black and white landscapes mainly in the American western states. He died in 1984 at the age of 82.

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