As I posted earlier - to do it properly one probably needed to have deeper pockets than I think he did.
Some things are very difficult to do both profitably and properly. That is an unfortunate fact of life. But that doesn't mean that one should ignore what the rules are.
If it had been up to me, I would have tried to interest a university or historical society in the project.
But Maloof did make an attempt to find relatives and could find only one who he made a deal and paid them $5000. So he did his "due diligence" although everyone can have their opinion of how much that should be. After Maier gained fame, her other relatives came out of the woodwork to make their claim along with their ambulance-chasing lawyers. Well, you know that was going to happen. I'm sure Maloof figure on it too.
Who's to say how much time and energy and expenses should be spent to do research "properly". What do you mean by properly anyway? Was Maloof suppose to search all of Europe for some lost relative? (see the article below) Remember, he;'s taking a chance too. He spent a lot of money developing, printing, publishing, promoting, and selling. So if and when a relative showed up, he would be legally challenged and have to deal with the chance he would get nothing. Apparently, the probate court has given Maloof a percentage of all profits holding the balance for the estate. That seems like a fair arrangement.
I just did a search and found this. I wonder how much it cost the lawyers to do this search in 2018 and make a 300-page filing?
(read the whole article to see just how complicated and expensive this thing became. Of course, whatever profits leftover for the estate and the relatives that Maloof doesn't get, will be claimed first by the lawyers of the relatives for their expenses. By the time the lawyers are done, there won't be enough cheese left for a mouse to get a tooth in.)
Genealogical investigation uncovers 10 heirs of famed Chicago street photographer Vivian Maier
Among the enduring mysteries surrounding celebrated Chicago street photographer Vivian Maier was whether any viable heirs would ever come forward to claim a piece of the former nanny’s lucrative estate.
Now, after an exhaustive genealogical investigation, lawyers representing potential heirs have filed a lengthy report in Cook County Probate Court that for the first time puts the entire Maier family tree into focus.
The 300-page filing made public this week identifies 10 cousins of Maier who were still living at the time of her death in 2009, possibly putting them in line under Illinois probate law to inherit a portion of an estate believed to be worth millions of dollars.
A team of genealogists pored over Maier’s complicated lineage for more than three years, traveling to France, Slovakia, Hungary, Austria and elsewhere to research old church records, baptisms, marriage certificates, census information, and birth and death records involving scores of family members.
While Maier’s mother’s side in France was fairly easy to unravel, her father’s family — with its roots in Austria and Slovakia — posed a greater challenge. Many of the records were so old that they contained language and spelling variations or other issues that complicated the search, according to the filing.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news...apher-vivian-maier-estate-20180625-story.html