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Case file s428 · Literature and art · 2009
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2009
Vivian Maier: www.mediodescocido.com.ar
Vivian Maier. MEDIODESCOCIDO. CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons.
Died
21 April 2009
Place
Chicago · United States
Field
photographer · Visual art and architecture on the timeline
Legal tradition
Illinois probate law; US copyright law · Common law
Historical event
Rediscovery of street photography in the internet age
Literature and artDied without a willNowNorth AmericaUnited States
AI illustration: A twin-lens reflex camera and boxes of undeveloped film in a Chicago storage locker
Illustration made with AI for celebrity.estate.

Vivian Maier was a nanny who died unknown; after her photographs sold, Cook County took over her estate to find out who owned them

Maier worked as a nanny in Chicago and photographed the streets for decades without showing anyone†. Her negatives were sold from a storage locker at auction in 2007 for unpaid rent†. John Maloof bought a large share, printed and sold them, and made a documentary. Maier died without a will. A copyright question followed: owning a negative is not owning the copyright. Maloof hired genealogists, found a first cousin once removed in France, Sylvian Jaussaud, and paid him $5,000 for his rights. In July 2014 David Deal, a photographer turned law student, petitioned Cook County probate court to determine her rightful heir. The court put the estate under the Cook County Public Administrator, David A. Epstein. In 2014 the estate issued citations to Maloof and his company to discover assets. In March 2016 the estate and Maloof reached a confidential settlement, approved by the probate court in May 2016 and sealed to protect talks with other owners of her work. A separate heir claim by Francis Baille was settled under sealed terms.

What the law took from it

Anyone who dies intestate with valuable copyrights leaves the state to find an heir, and buyers of the physical work may own nothing.

Sources
  1. news.wttw.comPress
  2. hyperallergic.comPress
  3. hullandhull.comPress
  4. ABA JournalPress

Cite as: celebrity.estate, “Vivian Maier was a nanny who died unknown; after her photographs sold, Cook County took over her estate to find out who owned them,” story s428, https://www.celebrity.estate/vivian-maier-2009, updated 30 October 2026.

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Where this case sits

Literature and artDied without a willNowNorth AmericaCommon lawUnited States