Courtesy Clint Spaulding/Patrick McMullan

Financially challenged photographer Annie Leibovitz at the International Center for Photography's 25th Annual Infinity Awards in New York in May.

Courtesy Art Capital Group

Art Capital Group's founder and CEO, Ian Peck

Send a letter to the Editor

Save to Del.icio.us Digg this

The financial troubles of the famed celebrity and fashion photographer Annie Leibovitz became public knowledge this past July when Art Capital Group, a privately held New York-based art world lender, filed a lawsuit against her in New York State Supreme Court. Art Capital claims that Leibovitz blocked its rights under a sales agreement — entered into as part of the deal under which the group gave the photographer a $24 million loan — "to act as [her] exclusive sales agent, both directly for the fine art collateral [of the loan] and through prominent licensed real estate brokers retained by plaintiff for the real property collateral," which comprises extensive holdings in Greenwich Village and Rhinebeck, New York. In addition, the complaint charges that Leibovitz failed to pay invoices totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars due to Art Capital. It characterizes her conduct as "boldly deceptive" and states that "she entered into the sales agreement represented by able and sophisticated counsel and financial advisers" but "with no intention of performing or permitting performance under it."

The complaint defines the "fine art" collateral for the loan as every photographic image ever taken by Leibovitz, including any created between the time the loan was originated and the end of the "tail period" — an additional two years after the loan payment. Art Capital’s rights as exclusive sales agent for all the collateral extend through the same period, during which it is to receive a commission on any copyright and real estate sales of 10 percent, a rate that would jump to 25 percent if she were to default, according to Art Capital spokesperson Montieth Illingworth, of the crisis management consultancy Montieth & Company. The firm asserts it informed Leibovitz at the outset that some of her assets would need to be sold to finance the terms of the agreement.

"The claims in the lawsuit are false and untrue. This is part of Art Capital’s continued harassment and attention-getting efforts," says Leibovitz spokesperson Matthew Hiltzik, of the New York-based communications firm Hiltzik Strategies. "There has been tension and dispute since the beginning. Annie is in the same shoes as many other people involved with Art Capital. For now, her attention remains on her photography and on continuing to organize her finances." He adds, however, "We’re in the midst of a process to resolve this situation."

How the 60-year-old photographer, who reportedly commands a day rate in the low six figures, fell so deeply into debt has been the subject of several recent magazine articles. According to public documents, she faced two lawsuits, from a lighting company and a stylist, for unpaid fees and $1.4 million in tax liens when she approached Art Capital, in June 2008. That September, Phillips de Pury & Company announced that Leibovitz had given it exclusive rights for international representation of her work, and in late October the house mounted a selling exhibition of 200 images from a Master Set that it promoted as "a definitive oeuvre" of the photographer’s iconic pictures. The representation and sales deals fell apart last spring when Phillips discovered Art Capital’s involvement, according to a source close to Phillips, who told Art+Auction, "She wasn’t in a position to do any of this, because all the money was going straight to Art Capital."

When her short-lived partnership with the auction house ended, Leibovitz returned to the New York gallery of the veteran photography dealer James Danziger, who had represented her between 1990 and 2000 (she worked with the Edwynn Houk Gallery from 2000 until leaving for Phillips). Danziger says he intends to print a Master Set of 150 of the photographer’s most famous images in three different sizes and sell them in an edition of 10, to be released incrementally. "Annie is very interested" in another project for commissioned portraits, he adds. "We’re planning to take her work to Art Basel in Miami in December and are planning a show at the Chelsea gallery in early 2010." Asked how Art Capital’s role might affect all this, Danziger says, "My plan is to present work from the artist and sell it in the traditional manner and pay the artist in the traditional manner, unless otherwise directed."