[pure-silver] Re: Experts: Ansel Adams photos found at garage sale worth $200 million
- From: "Bela Gutman" <bgutman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <pure-silver@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 28 Jul 2010 10:35:26 -0700
To those whom this issue might be of interest, I thought this explains
eloquently the issue discussed earlier in this forum. This is not only a
discussion on legal, but moral obligations.
Dr. Chaim Povarsky, Professor of Law and Director of our Institute of Jewish
Law. He holds a
LL.B. degree from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and LL.M and J.S.D.
degrees
from Tel Aviv University.
“The Concept of Justice”
“The application of the principle of justice in cases of unjust enrichment
raises the
question as to the meaning of justice in the context of unjust enrichment.
Justice is one
of the foundations of the law.”
“However, the concept of justice is very broad, and may signify a variety of
values such as truthfulness, rightness, impartiality, honesty, integrity,
evenhandedness
and fairness. While a judge may be required to exercise all of these aspects of
justice, the
principle of unjust enrichment may be based on one aspect of justice.
Furthermore, there
are many categories of justice; philosophers speak about legal justice,
equitable justice,
distributive justice, corrective justice, social justice, conventional justice,
divine justice
and natural justice. What is the meaning of justice as the basis of unjust
enrichment?
American legal scholars stress the value of fairness as the aspect of justice
that
underlies the principle of unjust enrichment. The meaning of justice in cases
of unjust
enrichment in Jewish law is not clear.”
“It would appear that according to this view if a person himself obtains a
benefit
at another’s expense he must make restitution although he did not make a
profit. Does it
mean that in this case the benefit is the basis for restitution? Not
necessarily.
The basis for the defendant’s obligation to make restitution is rather the
plaintiff’s loss. However,
the plaintiff’s loss in itself would not generate liability, because it is
indirect damage; the
defendant’s liability in this case is based on the benefit he derived from the
plaintiff’s
loss. It is a tortuous liability rather then a restitutional liability.
According to this view, a
person is not liable for indirect damage only if he did not benefit from the
damage; if he
did benefit from it he will be liable in tort for the damage.”
From: pure-silver-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:pure-silver-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of mark@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Wednesday, July 28, 2010 7:27 AM
To: pure-silver@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [pure-silver] Re: Experts: Ansel Adams photos found at garage sale
worth $200 million
Honestly three letters had me somewhat doubtful from the start. The letters
CNN. Now that I see the Alan Ross comments, I am even more skeptical.
First of all if anyone needs to tell you the debate is over, it almost never
is. Fact should tell you that, not a lawyer. The handwriting expert confirmed
the writing was Ansel's wife's. Didn't she often accompany him on photo
trips??? If so wouldn't it be plausible if not probably that she might be
making notes for others that were working with him??
Alan made some valid points too. But just because he usually printed more than
one, doesn't mean he didn't change his practices with these particular images
for some unknown reason. It is also possible that Ansel did really like these
particular plates and really had no intention of ever showing them.
I can only come to one conclusion. The creator of the plates in question can
never really be proved or disproved based on what was reported there. Unless
some other writings or documentation surfaces, I doubt it ever will be
something one can no for certain.
The images are still history, still seem to be good work from the hands and eye
of a competent photographer, and have value name or no name.
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [pure-silver] Re: Experts: Ansel Adams photos found at garage
sale worth $200 million
From: "bonner" < <mailto://bguil@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> bguil@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, July 28, 2010 5:21 am
To: < <mailto://pure-silver@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> pure-silver@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Regarding the plates, there is probably no greater expert on AA than Alan Ross,
his prior assistant who continues to print his negatives for the AA foundation.
He has reviewed the images and come to the following conclusion.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Interestingly enough, the New York Times has not seen fit to provide coverage
of this claim as yet.
The images in the Norsigian collection do seem to be the work of a competent
photographer working in Yosemite, San Francisco and Carmel. In a format used
by AA in the late 20's. The camera locations are similar to known Adams
favorites - but then, most of those were primary tourist viewpoints offering an
obvious place to plant a camera.
Some of the images are of yachting scenes on San Francisco Bay. Nothing of any
similarity in subject or format exists in the Adams Archive. LIkewise some
utterly bland images of a Spanish-style mission.
A major claim in the voice for authenticity is that one image - I believe of
the Jeffrey Pine on Sentinel Dome - shows some same/similar cloud formations as
exist in a known Adams image. Anyone who knew Ansel also knows that he very
often had fellow photographers at his side - either by invitation or
coincidence - when he was out photographing. The clouds could easily have been
recorded by a different camera a few feet away.
The plates seem to show signs of fire damage. Yes, Ansel's Yosemite darkroom
caught fire in 1938 and a number of prized negatives were lost. For me, this
is the weak-link/downfall of the authenticity claimants. Ansel was working
with a 6.5x8.5 plate camera when he did Monolith in 1927. The fire was in
1938. A good number of negatives made prior to the fire had been printed many
times - Pine Branches in Snow comes to mind, for one example. As well as I
know Ansel's work, and as far as I have otherwise heard, not ONE authenticated
AA print from ANY of the Norsigian plates is known. If it was a good image -
and some of these are - Ansel couldn't have NOT resisted making more than one
print of each - and even then SOME would have survived to exist in Ansel's own
archive or in the collections of photgapehr and Sierra Club friends.
They are some nice images, but I cannot believe they are the work of Ansel
Adams.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Perhaps the images have some value, but very unlikely to be AA.
BG
From: <mailto://pure-silver-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
pure-silver-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [ <mailto:pure-silver-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
mailto:pure-silver-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Peter Badcock
Sent: Wednesday, July 28, 2010 7:04 AM
To: <mailto://pure-silver@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> pure-silver@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [pure-silver] Re: Experts: Ansel Adams photos found at garage sale
worth $200 million
On 28 July 2010 15:35, Don Sweet < <mailto:don@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
don@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
A good answer to this question must also deal with the possibility that they
aren't by Adams.
The more I read the lawyer's statement as reported in the CNN article the
less confident I became. It sounds like a closing address to a jury:
Experts, including a former FBI agent and a U.S. attorney, "came to the
conclusion that, based on the evidence which was overwhelming, that
no reasonable person would have
any doubt that these, in fact, were the long-lost images of Ansel
Adams," Arnold said
So, if all the "reasonable" people are later shown to be wrong, and some
future buyer is looking at a loss of $200m, who should compensate whom?
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