Annie Leibovitz Woes Shed Light On Art Loans

By Ula Ilnytzky, Associated Press Writer
NEW YORK — Photographer Annie Leibovitz has won an extension on a $24 million loan in a financial dispute that threatened her rights to her famous images.
Leibovitz and Art Capital Group announced Friday that the 59-year-old photographer had been given more time to repay the loan. The two sides didn't say how long the extension would last.

The loan's deadline passed on Tuesday. Leibovitz would have had to repay it or lose the rights to photographs that she had put up as collateral.

Art Capital had sued for repayment in July but said Friday that it had withdrawn the lawsuit and that Leibovitz could retain the copyright to her work.

Last year, Leibovitz put up as collateral three Manhattan townhouses, an upstate New York property and the copyright to every picture she has ever taken — or will take — to secure the loan.

Leibovitz portraits have graced the covers of Vanity Fair, Vogue and Rolling Stone.

Art Capital is a Manhattan-based company that issues short-term loans against fine and decorative arts and real estate.

Art Capital consolidated all Leibovitz's loans in September 2008. The company said Leibovitz needed the money to deal with a "dire financial condition arising from her mortgage obligations, tax liens and unpaid bills to service providers and other creditors."

Its lawsuit charged she had breached a December sales agreement with the company, granting Art Capital the right to sell the collateral before the loan came due. The lawsuit claimed the photographer refused to allow real estate experts into her homes to appraise their value and blocked the company from selling her photographs.

Art Capital has estimated the value of the Leibovitz portfolio at $40 million, and real estate brokers say her New York properties are worth about $40 million.

Pace Law School Professor and intellectual property lawyer Horace Anderson said the "messiness" of the Leibovitz case may make other lenders think twice before making loans in similar situations.

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