Ansel Adams. “Aspens, Northern New Mexico.” Sotheby’s New York, “Photographs from the Polaroid Collection”

As Polaroid tries to pull itself out of bankruptcy, the classic camera-maker has resorted to a last-ditch effort to free up funds — the company has announced it will be selling many of its signature prints at auction June 21 and 22 at Sotheby’s in New York.

Of course, these are not just any photographs up for sale. Pieces from masters like Ansel Adams, Andy Warhol, Chuck Close, William Wegman, Robert Rauschenberg, David Hockney, Robert Frank, Robert Mapplethorpe and Lucas Samaras will be on display, amounting to a collection of 1,200 individual photographs. The auction is expected to fetch a record $10 million.

Founded in the late 1930s by inventor and scientist Edwin H. Land, Polaroid is most-widely known for its revolutionary in-camera instant photography. The company acquired its impressive print collection — which is said to number around 10,000 — by trading equipment and darkroom time with eminent photographers of the time.

“It’s an amazing body of work,” acclaimed photographer and painter Chuck Close recently told the New York Observer. “There’s really nothing like it in the history of photography.” Still, he added, “to sell it is criminal.”

Unfortunately, it doesn’t look as if Polaroid has a choice. The company filed for bankruptcy in 2007, and has already discontinued its camera and film production. Now creditors are forcing it to auction off a portion of its esteemed photography collection.

Let’s hope these images somehow end up in a collection that benefits the whole photographic community.

Thoughts?