word -- "friendship." i'm jamie colby for "strange inheritance." thanks so much for watching. and remember -- you can't take it with you. >> treasures stashed in the attic! >> they hadn't been touched for 40 years. that was like [gasps] shocking and exciting. [ camera shutter clicking ] >> history saved from the trash! >> she was a dumpster diver. >> she absolutely was. >> can these heirs cash in on their startling discovery? >> it's hard to believe that you had an ansel adams lining a drawer. >> and your reaction? >> "wow." [ chuckles ] [ camera shutter clicks ] >> but it's not so black and white. >> did you say to yourself, "uh-oh -- legally, maybe i can't do this?" >> i was concerned about that. >> will this photo finish... bring riches...or regrets? >> i was also feeling like, if i sold too many, then i would lose

that part of my mother. [ door creaks ] [ wind howls ] [ thunder rumbles ] [ bird caws ] i'm jamie colby, and today i'm on staten island in new york city. so, picture this -- a packrat mom spends a lifetime stuffing her home. her kids wonder, "ma, when are you ever gonna get rid of all this stuff?" of course, she never does. and then a classic "strange inheritance" tale comes into sharp focus. >> my name is jaye smith. our mom, carol, had an expression -- "never forget to look in your attic." we thought she meant it metaphorically. now we know she meant it literally, as in, "there really is valuable stuff in our attic." >> hi, jaye. jaye, an executive coach, has invited me here to her mother's

house. shall we? >> yeah. come on in. >> thank you. in 2011, jaye's mother, carol, a retired editor of a photography magazine, dies at the age of 86. jaye and her brother, lee, inherit her home... along with the task of cleaning it out. and there is lots to clean. was mom a hoarder? >> [ laughing ] yes, she was. her motto was, you know, "waste not, want not." >> the most daunting challenge is the deceptively capacious attic. >> whoa! jaye... there's so much space in here! it's like a secret hiding place. it's cleared out now. not back then. lee, are we talking a hazmat situation? >> pretty close. >> paint a picture for me, jaye. >> well, when we came up it was overwhelming. it was just boxes and boxes and boxes -- broken lamps, several vacuum cleaners, old irons, you

know, all kinds of crazy things. >> working through the heap, they spy some curious items in a corner. >> and i thought, "oh, god. what's this?" >> what we saw was... piles and piles of envelopes... and tubes. >> lee and jaye open them up to find a mysterious assortment of photographs. >> they were kind of random -- different types of images, stills and biographical photographs. >> more than 1,500 of them! did you know immediately what these were? >> no, i didn't. some of them i knew that they were well-known people and they were probably shot for newspapers or magazines. >> unraveling the mystery demands a closer look at the career of jaye and lee's mom, carol carlisle. >> she had a great job. it was with popular photography magazine, and, at the end of her

career, was the managing editor of the magazine, which was unusual for women at that time. >> carol is also smack in the middle of the golden age of photography in the top magazines of the day, including life, look, and national geographic. outside of work, carol, a twice-divorced single mom, is just as passionate about photography. her two favorite subjects can attest. >> she was a very good photographer herself. she had a light meter that she carried with her everywhere. >> you ever get tired of her taking your picture? >> oh, yes. [ both laugh ] >> but is carol someone who literally brings her work home with her? what did you know about where mom found these or acquired them? >> well, i do recall as a child, growing up in this magazine office, in the back by the freight elevator, there were these huge canvas dumpsters.

and they were filled to the brim with photographs. so, i imagine her passing by them and, you know, looking across the top -- saying, "oh, that's attractive," "that's nice," and collecting them over a series of years. >> after carol's death in 2011, the photos just sit for several months. what you think you'd do with it? >> we really didn't know. >> but everything changes when jaye holds a garage sale to sell off some of her mother's stuff. >> just toward the end, a man came up, and he asked me if i had some cameras to sell, and i said, well, no, i didn't have cameras. >> but jaye does have mom's old photos. >> so i pulled out one. it was of a little old man with birdcages and doves. i showed him the photograph, and his eyes popped out of his head. he said, "may i take a picture of it?" and i looked suspiciously at

him, and, "why?" >> he tells jaye he recognizes the print as the work of henri cartier-bresson, considered the master of candid photography. and that old man with the birds? that's the renowned french painter henri matisse. >> he said, "i have a friend who worked with cartier-bresson, and he would know the value of the photograph." so i said, "oh, in that case, sure." i didn't have any expectations of it at all. it was curiosity, really. >> a few hours later, the man calls jaye back. what did he tell you? >> $12,000. >> $12,000 for one? >> "oh, wow." i was shocked. i was really shocked. then he said, "what else do you have?" >> what else did jaye and lee have? had they stumbled across a treasure trove? >> when i saw this, it was the most exquisite thing that i could possibly have hoped to find. >> that's next. >> but first, our

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the answer is... titled "view from the window at le gras," the photo is of this estate and the surrounding countryside. >> in staten island, new york, jaye smith and her brother, lee, are piecing together their strange inheritance -- 1,500 rare and possibly very valuable photographs, found hidden in their mother, carol's, attic. >> they hadn't been touched for 40 years -- just stuffed in the corner. >> the siblings assume their mom saved the prints from the waste piles of the photography magazine where she worked for three decades. did you have any idea what they were worth? >> not a clue. >> but jaye and lee want to find out. they call in photo appraiser elizabeth eicholz from christie's to make sense of the snapshots. as elizabeth examines the collection, she is first pleasantly surprised, then

amazed. look! there are those classic shots of brigitte bardot... winston churchill... and ernest hemingway... hundreds of famous images by some of the most renowned photographers of the time -- richard avedon, ansel adams, cornell capa, and more. >> it was extraordinary in its vastness -- the number of photographs, the number of artists, the span of decades. >> and each individually hand-printed by one of those masters, using now-vanishing darkroom arts... selecting just the right contrast paper to expose under a carefully calibrated enlarger, lightening and darkening isolated areas with dodging and burning tools, dipping each sheet in developer and fixing solutions for exactly the right time at precisely the right temperature...

and still not knowing what you've created until each has drip-dried and the light comes on. those were the days of darkrooms. how much of a role does the quality of a print play in selling photography of that era? >> a photographer's negative can be compared to a composer's score, where the print is the performance, so that can give a sense for how important the physical print is. >> it makes it art. >> exactly. carol certainly knew that there was something more special to these than just pieces of paper. >> a few really stand out, like this nighttime manhattan cityscape taken by pioneering female photographer berenice abbott in 1932. >> this is one of abbott's most well known, if not her very most iconic, image. she had to wait until the shortest day of the year in

order for the light to be just right. when i saw this, it was the most exquisite thing that i could possibly have hoped to find. vintage examples are extremely rare. it's a diamond in the rough. >> that diamond in the rough could buy a gemstone from tiffany's. elizabeth appraises this single print for $20,000. bing, bing, bing, bing, bing! >> that was like [gasps] shocking and exciting. >> this image of two bullfight attendants was shot by candid photography pioneer henri cartier-bresson with one of the first fast, hand-held cameras that let photographers work in dangerous locations, like bullrings. >> this image definitely could stand up to the vintage examples that you would see in any of the museums today. >> the appraiser estimates this print at around 10 grand. she then selects 22 pictures she

feels are the most marketable for auction and values them at around 120k. and your reaction? >> "wow." [ chuckles ] >> but jaye and lee can't head to the auction block quite yet. while their mother may have had the prints in her possession, true ownership may lie elsewhere. how can jaye sell photos that she just happened to have the prints? don't the photographers own their own images? >> well, that's a good question, and it's one of that comes up time and time again. >> will their strange inheritance be someone else's gold mine? you go to all the work of uncovering and archiving, but there's a chance you don't own them, you can't do anything with them? that's next! >> here's another quiz question for you. why are 19th-century photos dominated by stony, solemn faces?

were the subjects typically... uncomfortable from the hot lights... self-conscious about their teeth... or mimicking painted portraits? the answer after the break. ♪♪ smooth driving pays off you never been in better hands allstate click or call for a quote today allstate ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

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>> so, why are 19th-century photos dominated by stony, solemn faces? the answer is "c." these early photos mimic traditional european portrait painting, where smiles were only worn by peasants, children, and drunks. >> a stash of original photographic prints in mom's attic -- the strange inheritance of jaye and lee smith -- may be worth hundreds of thousands of

dollars. but there's one big problem -- they may not be able to sell them. did you say to yourself, "i have 1,500 or more images, but uh-oh -- legally, maybe i can't do this"? what are the issues? do you own it? >> i was concerned about that, as some of them are very, very famous and well-known images. >> enter the lawyers for a nerve-wracking evaluation. ultimately, they conclude the photographers no longer own the physical prints. on what basis did the lawyer tell you you have legal ownership? >> "a," that i've had them for 40 years, but that all photographers who submit photographs to a publication do so with the expectation that it will not be returned. >> so you own the print. you don't own the image. >> correct. i do not own the image. >> but what about the magazine?

shouldn't it own the photos, not carol carlisle's heirs? again, the lawyers opine that once the magazine placed the photos in the trash, it surrendered its rights to the prints and jaye and lee can sell them. >> i think a lot of people in carol's position are probably kicking themselves, knowing what had sort of gone through their hands. what was somebody else's trash, at that point, was her treasure. >> she was a dumpster diver. >> she absolutely was, yeah. >> with their rights now clearly in focus, jaye and lee race their mother's photos to the auction block. in october 2013, an auction of 22 of the most valuable prints takes place at christie's in new york city, with the whole family in attendance. >> the photos are a smash hit. the shot of those bullfight attendants, appraised at 10k, brings in almost $30,000, while

the portrait of matisse goes for a more-than-expected 18 grand. and the berenice abbott cityscape, valued at $20,000, earns $90,000! in all, the group fetches 200k. it's a lot of money. >> it's a lot of money -- a lot of money for us as a family. it was a very wonderful, exciting evening for everybody. >> bit by the auction bug, the family's itching to sell off more of their strange inheritance. >> i felt like now i had a responsibility for the family to sort of keep things rolling along. >> but a second, smaller auction doesn't draw the same interest. two of the photos fail to sell, though a third brings in $4,400. >> even christie's was surprised. what they were worth and what they actually sell for is, of course, two different things, i've learned. >> maybe the family was rushing things so soon after their mother's death. >> it did start getting me to think about, "well, maybe i

should slow down and stop this right now," and i was also feeling like, if i sold too many, then i would lose that part of my mother, so keeping the images close to me and to the family felt more like keeping her around. so i just stopped everything for quite a while. >> with still more than 1,000 rare photographic prints, jaye and her brother, lee, trust their next step will present itself in time. and it does, after another discovery, this time in mom's hall closet. >> it sort of re-energized me about the whole thing. it was like another part of the treasure hunt, you know? "what is this, and what is it worth?" >> the answers, next. what's your "strange inheritance" story? we'd love to tell it. send me an e-mail or go to our website -- strangeinheritance.com. yeah, i mean the thing is, people like geico because it's just easy. bundling for example. you've got car insurance here. and home insurance here.

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standstill with the 1,500 photographs they found stashed in their mother, carol's, attic in staten island, new york. they've sold some of the most valuable ones, and now they're having mixed feelings about the whole thing. >> i felt like i was losing her. it felt like they embodied her. if they were going out to strangers, what would be left? and so that memory of her was walking out the door. >> did you ever say to yourself, "maybe we're rushing?" >> i think it was, "let's take our time and let's back up and re-evaluate." >> but in early 2015, another discovery nudges them back into action. >> i was clearing out our hall closet, and there, tucked in the corner... >> was...? >> another envelope of photographs. inside, there were other celebrities, so a lot of well-known, recognizable people. i feel like, somehow, my mother

is pointing us toward these things, like "don't forget this, and don't forget that." >> or maybe their mom is saying, "don't forget...me!" so this time jaye signs up with a virtual cultural arts center called poba. the site features creative types who've died without full recognition of their talents or legacies, says managing partner jennifer cohen. >> we connect people with all the resources that they need to archive, to catalog, to preserve, to appraise, and sometimes even to sell and promote their work. >> over the next few months, the organization sorts through the prints carol rescued and curates them in a permanent online gallery. >> some of these photos are iconic. it really shows the entire range of great black-and-white photography over a very important period of time. >> including, from the hall-closet prints, this

marilyn monroe... >> jumping quite high, actually. >> it's a great, great photograph. >> it certainly seems like a happy and magical capturing of the '60s. >> ...a candid snapshot of pablo picasso... >> eating a fish, obviously, or, having eaten a fish. >> yes. all that's left are the bones. >> ...and another landscape by ansel adams. >> it's hard to believe that you had an ansel adams lining a drawer. >> yes. [ laughs ] >> have you given some thought as to what you'd like to keep, what you'd like to sell? >> i'm not just considering myself. it's my family's collection, as well. but i think the idea is to get them out into the world and let other people enjoy them. >> classic prints created by some the world's most innovative photographers, saved from a pile of trash by a sharp-eyed editor with a love of art who, for reasons of her own, leaves them

for her kids to discover once she's gone. you think mom was revealing something to you from the grave? >> i feel like i'm reliving her steps, you know, for those 30-something years that she was really entrenched and engrossed in photography. >> what was that old saying of carol's -- "never forget to look in the attic"? now her children are thinking, "maybe mom didn't mean it so literally, after all." >> the older i get, the more appreciative i am of what she did and who she was. [ camera shutter clicks ] you know, when carol first became interested in photography back in the 1950s, it was estimated that the whole world was taking about a billion photos a year. now it's more than a billion a day. i'm a lot like carol. i can't bear to see a snapshot go in the trash, but, fortunately, i don't have an overflowing attic -- just a

seriously clogged hard drive. i'm jamie colby. thanks so much for watching "strange inheritance," and remember -- you can't take it with you. muck. >> from the fox studios in new york city, this is maria bartiromo's "wall street." maria: happy weekend, everyone. welcome to the program that analyzes the week that was and helps position you for the week ahead. i'm maria bartiromo. coming up, more than a dozen states' attorneys general are fighting president biden's orders to kill the keystone pipeline. arkansas' a.g. leslie rutledge is here on what legal actions they may take. and how long until we actually see self-driving cars on the road? you may be surprised to hear what emil michael has to say about that all coming up right

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