'Pawn Stars' guest let down as expert values photograph he wanted $1,500 for at just $300
"Pawn Stars" boss Rick Harrison plays hardball, and guests can't get what they ask for. They're left even more disappointed when an expert values an item at a rate significantly lower than their estimates. That happened to a man who brought a black and white photograph, which he believed to be at least worth $1,500. However, the expert looked at it and said that the most it was worth was $300, much to the guest’s dismay.
The item was a print by the famous photographer Ansel Adams. Many believe him to be the one who bridged the gap between photography and art. His outstanding photographs of Yosemite catapulted him to stardom. Adams’ work can bring in thousands of dollars, with one called “Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico” selling for a whopping $609,600 at auction in 2006.
“Ansel Adams is one of the greatest landscape artists of all time. His black and white photos are iconic. But don’t let the posters at the doctor’s office fool you. Original Ansel Adams are worth a lot of money,” Rick Harrison said. Chumlee had no idea about the artist and jokingly asked if he was a member of the Addams family. Judging from the guest’s expression, he might not have appreciated the joke very much.
Harrison knew that it could be worth a lot of money, and so, a $1,500 asking price might have seemed like a fair amount at first. However, he had to be absolutely sure of what he was buying before entering into any kind of negotiations. Therefore, he called in the expert Brett, a fine art appraiser at Art Encounter. He immediately understood that it was an Ansel Adams print. However, there were some issues.
“This was a piece intended for reproduction, and you can tell it was used in that capacity. You can see the markings on it,” he said. The other issue with the print was that there was no stamp on the back. That was the biggest problem and why this print was nowhere near what the guest had expected it to be.
“For most of his pieces for reproduction in newspapers, he would have some sort of stamp on here, 'return to artist.' The reason for that is he didn’t want an image like this to be seen. The fact that it was reproduced in a large capacity, I think, gives it a little bit of collectability, but as a fine art piece, a connoisseur of Ansel Adams' works wouldn’t look twice at this,” he said.
The expert valued the print at $300, and Harrison offered the guest $200. However, the guest figured that it would be better if he got the print framed and displayed it in his home, as it still was a stunning photograph.
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