BEVERLY HILLS (AP).- A lawyer says a trove of old glass negatives bought in California for $45 has been authenticated as the work of iconic photographer Ansel Adams, worth at least $200 million.

Attorney Arnold Peter says a team of experts has concluded the 65 negatives are from the early work of Adams. It was believed the work had been destroyed in a fire decades ago.

The negatives were bought 10 years ago at a garage sale in Fresno by painter Rick Norsigian, who noticed they resembled Adams' famed photographs of Yosemite National Park and hired Peter to assemble a team of experts.

Ansel Easton Adams (February 20, 1902 – April 22, 1984) was an American photographer and environmentalist, best known for his black-and-white photographs of the American West, especially in Yosemite National Park. One of his most famous photographs was Moon and Half Dome, Yosemite National Park, California.

With Fred Archer, Adams developed the Zone System as a way to determine proper exposure and adjust the contrast of the final print. The resulting clarity and depth characterized his photographs and the work of those to whom he taught the system. Adams primarily used large-format cameras, despite their size, weight, setup time, and film cost, because their high resolution helped ensure sharpness in his images.

Adams founded the Group f/64 along with fellow photographers Edward Weston and Imogen Cunningham, which in turn created the Museum of Modern Art's department of photography. Adams's timeless and visually stunning photographs are reproduced on calendars, posters, and in books, making his photographs widely recognizable.

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press.
With Information from Wikipedia.org