I suppose losing the negatives would be akin to snatching their baby from their arms and dashing on the rocks, to the people running the Institute. Any physical thing from that expedition would be holy grail class, considering that expedition caused the Institute to be born. I can understand their frustration with the owner not donating them, and asking for a whole lot of money.
But do they need them... no. They have prints which can be digitized for further manipulation and study. I guess they have they negatives for a little while longer, which can be projected to a large size and digitized.
I wonder if they are afraid whoever gets the negatives will be a copyright dick, and hassle anyone trying to display the pictures?
__________________
The descent of man ~ Nixon, Friedman, Reagan, Trump.
|