From the start, Team Norsigian has advocated for a panel of independent experts to decide if the negatives purchased at a Fresno garage sale are the lost negatives of Ansel Adams, as one group of experts has already concluded.
Arnold Peter, Norsigian's attorney stated, "we are thrilled at the prospect of Mr. Turnage agreeing to an independent, third-party analysis. In fact, we were thinking of the Smithsonian Institution which Mr. Norsigian had approached early in the process. As governmental entities, it is highly unlikely that either the Center or the Smithsonian would get involved in what is essentially a private dispute." Therefore, Peter proposed "a very simple solution...Mr. Norsigian and I sit down with Mr. Turnage and Matthew Adams and we each select one expert and then our two appointees select the third member and the three-member panel would render its final and binding decision."
With this possibility in play, perhaps the personal attacks and name-calling can come to a halt. Instead, a panel of experts could write the next chapter in this fascinating story that has attracted global attention.
"This is what I have always wanted and was the reason I initially reached out to the Adams family and Ansel's colleagues," Rick Norsigian noted. "I am ecstatic that this door may now open and that reason can prevail over emotion."
