Art Capital Group Sues Annie Leibovitz

Allen Salkin of the NY Times is reporting that Art Capital Group, which loaned Annie Leibovitz $24 million is suing the famous photographer. Art Capital Group holds a lien on every photograph Liebovitz ever took as well as real estate properties in New York City and Rhinebeck, NY. According to the suit Liebovitz is not allowing appraisers into her properties and has failed to make agreed upon payments.

Salkin states Ms. Leibovitz approached Art Capital in June 2008 about her “dire financial condition” arising from her “mortgage obligations, tax liens and unpaid bills to service providers and other creditors,” the suit contends.

Art Capital and Ms. Leibovitz set up a one-year loan agreement with the company’s subsidiary American Photography starting in September 2008. In October, she signed a related agreement granting Art Capital the exclusive right to sell every photograph she had ever taken, her town houses in Greenwich Village, and her country home in Rhinebeck, the suit contends.

“In connection with the negotiation of this $22 million credit facility, Leibovitz discussed and acknowledged that Leibovitz’s fine art, intellectual property and real estate assets, all collateral for the loan, would likely need to be sold, in whole or in part as part of the process of Leibovitz’s financial restructuring,” the suit charges.

Since drawing down the $22 million plus an additional $2 million in a further agreement with Art Capital, Ms. Leibovitz has refused to cooperate with Art Capital’s efforts to sell her photographs and her property, the suit charges.

To read the full article, click HERE.