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In pursuing this story I also take into account what we might call the “Inspector Clouseau factor” — the possibility that a bumbling incompetent (or even a busload of shlemiels and shlemozzles) could blunder and stumble into the correct solution to a puzzle. So I’m keeping an open mind on that subject, trying to separate hard evidence from irrelevancy, fact from fiction, and significant clues from red herrings. […] No other member of Team Norsigian (according to their resumés) knows anything at all about photography, or claims such knowledge. So this trio — Patrick Alt, Robert Moeller, and David Streets — represents the total expertise on photography brought to bear on this find by Team Norsigian. I estimate the cumulative value of that expertise as less than zero. It’s worth pointing out, too, that even in those ranks there’s dissension. Moeller has said of Street’s $200 million estimate, “I find it rather puzzling.” Alt, to his credit, is refreshingly straightforward: “It’s the biggest bunch of crap I’ve heard in my life.” […] There’s a dark comedy emerging here, a sardonic parable of wishful self-reinvention by middle-aged men: wall painter Rick Norsigian as an autodidact photo connoisseur, nudie photographer Patrick Alt as a “photography expert,” museum curator Robert Moeller as another, and art hustler David Streets as yet another. I don’t want a piece of the action from Norsigian’s print sales and licensing revenues; all that may end up going to the Adams Trust, depending on how the rights issue shakes down. I want an option on the Hollywood film of the story; that’s where the big bucks lie hidden. I’m talking starring roles for Jeff Bridges, John Travolta, Jim Belushi . . . […] Team Norsigian’s “Final Report of Investigative Team” begins thus: “There is no uniform or standardized method of authenticating photographs. Unlike a painting, there is no signature or unique brush strokes method attaching the artist to a photograph. Therefore, each investigation into the provenance of a photograph must be unique and individualized.” Yet photographs get authenticated — and disauthenticated, if that’s the word — every day, via methods not nearly so arcane or customized as this report suggests. […] |
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Team Norsigian Accentuates the Negative (7)
Team Norsigian’s last hope? Authentication of the negatives as made by Adams. In that case, as I’ve proposed, the negatives themselves will have market value as museum-quality artifacts. And the only way to authenticate the negatives is to dump the original Team Norsigian posse (with the possible exceptions of the meteorologist and handwriting experts), bring in a set of recognized and reputable researchers, and head to the CCP in Tucson. If the proof’s anywhere, it’s there. Time for Team Norsigian to learn to make nice with the CCP, instead of haranguing them inappropriately. […]