Annie Leibovitz Facing Lender Lawsuit

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed)
Jul 31st 2009 at 7:01AM

We've written before about Annie Leibovitz's financial woes but as Gawker reports, now her lender, Art Capital Group, is taking her to court. Leibovitz borrowed $24 million from the financial firm and as collateral the company took not only her two homes and all her negatives and the copyright to her photographs but also an agreement to sell her archives to repay the loan and the rights to arrange the sale. Art Capital has sued breach of contract saying that she isn't letting real estate agents into her homes and is being difficult in order to block attempts to sell the photos. The suit says that the loan was offered on the assumption that Leibovitz would eventually have to sell her photos to pay back the loan when it comes due in September. As part of the agreement that Leibovitz signed, Art Capital has the rights to administer sales of the work.

At Capital has physical custody of the negatives but the company is after a bigger prize, the intellectual property rights to Leibovitz's portfolio. In order to broker that sort of sale they need Leibovitz's cooperation. Meanwhile, Leibovitz made an agreement with Getty Images in March to work under a "a special multi-assignment collaboration." This deal, done without Art Capital's knowledge, cut them out of getting commission on the photos. The suit doesn't mention any payments that Leibovitz has made to Art Capital against the loan but it is unlikely that she has paid much of it off and as the Gawker article mentions Leibovitz's only out may be to declare bankruptcy. One of Gawker's commenters also makes the point that with the magazine business shrinking and the budget for lavish photo shoots on the wane, Leibovitz's opportunities to make money may be diminished.

Art Capital is in the business of making money off art and sometimes, artists. The company issues loans of $500,000 or more at interest rates from six percent to 16 percent to those who have artwork worthy of making such a loan. It operates like a pawn shop; if you fail to pay and you lose your precious art. Case in point, a Rubens hanging in the Art Capital offices once belonged to Veronica Hearst, the widow of Randolph Apperson Hearst. She mortgaged her art to hold onto Villa Venezio in Manalapan, Florida. She eventually lost the home in foreclosure. Artist Julian Schnabel sued Art Capital this year. He took out an $8 million loan in 2006, when he was building his pink folly known as Palazzo Chupi. Schnabel claims he paid back the loan but Art Capital says it is entitled to more money because Schnabel did not reveal there was an existing mortgage on the property. An ArtInfo article on that suit quotes Gerald Peters, a Santa Fe-based dealer who has bought paintings from Art Capital and says that "the game they have to play is rough, but the service they are providing is real. And there's demand for it."

Tags: annie leibovitz, AnnieLeibovitz, bankruptcy, debt

Filed under: Art

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

manfromorleans Jul 31st 2009 4:25PM

My Pal George DuBose is an admiror of yours he thinks this is criminal ....you have beeen railroaded

Nikki Jul 31st 2009 5:01PM

How can anyone who has had such a long and prestigious career be this broke?

jimbarry1946 Jul 31st 2009 5:41PM

Maybe she could take half naked pictures of the teenaged children of the Art Capital board of directors. That must have some value. If it's worth something for Miley, it must be worth a little for regular people.

Phil and Julie Jul 31st 2009 5:47PM

How can anyone who has had such a long and noteworthy career be broke? Simple: spend more than you make! Works at every level of society! The rich just fall farther and harder!

jon bass Jul 31st 2009 6:12PM

owell ......buy nikon the D3 works for me...

kindsister Jul 31st 2009 6:11PM

How can anybody wonder how someone is broke these days? Think Madoff. Wealthy not being able to justify portraits' expense, when someone has high end business expenses and lives in New York. Comments must be being made by young people that have not tried to keep a business afloat in this economy. My guess would be her portfolio imploded like many others have been doing. Property values suddenly dropping to a fraction of when the loans were made. Grow up. Read the news. You no longer need to "spend more than you make" to become broke. Recession breaks everyone, that is why it is a recession. Photgraphs suddenly become luxury items, while cost of doing business remains the same. Any idea how many employees she is responsible for?
The photographs have always been art, although clearly some conservative, ignorant think otherwise. You would like to dress all the classic paintings & sculptures to, I bet. Miley was modestly & artistically draped. Grow up.

Rush Jul 31st 2009 6:53PM

Does anyone know what she spent $24 million on?

bump Jul 31st 2009 9:50PM

WHAT NATIONALITY IS SHE?

mimsysc Jul 31st 2009 10:37PM

Sorry for anyone to get into financial trouble, I have never seen the draw of her photo's, they look like anyone elses, some black and white, some color, wow. I did see , on tv, when she wanted to bring a horse in Buckingham palace to "pose" with the queen, The queen was not amused, nor was she amused when Ms.L said one without the crown when she was in her robes, she said, it isnt done. Too funny.

Christian James Aug 1st 2009 9:14PM

The reason she is in debt is because when her life partner Susan Sontag died she left Annie everything including the many houses she owned. Unfortunately because they were gay and could not marry under our ridiculous laws that means Annie had to pay millions in inheritance taxes. Now if they were just allowed to marry, she would've never been in debt and having these problems