After nearly a year of legal battles, Rick Norsigian, the man who discovered 65 allegedly lost Ansel Adams plates at a garage sale in Fresno, Calif., has settled his legal quarrel with the Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust.
As part of their settlement, Norsigian has agreed to stop using the Ansel Adams name, likeness or trademark in connection with the sale of any prints or products based on the negatives.
The feud erupted in August 2010, after Norsigian asserted that a set of prints he possessed had been verified by experts as having been made by photographer Ansel Adams. Norsigian also said that, as the owner of the glass plates, he had a right to market any images created from them. Upon hearing this claim, the Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust filed a lawsuit against Norsigian.
Norsigian has also dropped his defamation claims, which he filed in December against the trust’s managing director, William Turnage. Both parties have agreed not to interfere with each other’s businesses in the future.
Norsigian’s website, RickNorsigian.com, remains online with the headline “The Lost Negatives,” but is now outfitted with the disclaimer that the images carry “no representation or warranty of authenticity as a work of Ansel Adams.”