Photog Annie Leibovitz Could Lose NY Homes

Colony Capital Taking Over Loan:

Update (3/9/10): Private equity firm Colony Capital will become celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz’s sole creditor and will help restructure her debt “… so that Annie can spend her time and focus in pursuing her passion as only she can do,” said Tom Barrack, the founder of Colony. This will allow Leibovitz to maintain control over her many properties — including her brownstones in Manhattan’s West Village.

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Art Capital Drops Lawsuit:

Update (9/11/09): Art Capital has dropped its lawsuit against celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz and has extended the date for her to repay a $24 million loan.

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Original post:

It’s hard to understand how Annie Leibovitz, the “it” photographer of the past four decades, known for her portraiture work of celebrities such as John Lennon, Demi Moore,  Whoopi Goldberg, and who makes a seven-figure salary from Vanity Fair and Vogue — not to mention her work for Gap, American Express and others — could possibly be in the severe financial mess she’s in.

According to the NY Times’ article, “For Annie Leibovitz, a Fuzzy Financial Picture,” Leibovitz could lose her two Civil War-era town houses in Greenwich Village, a home in Rhinebeck, NY, and rights to decades of her work, valued at $50 million as she is being sued by Art Capital Group, an art finance company who lent her millions.

It all started when Leibovitz approached Art Capital back in 2008 and asked for financial help due to “mortgage obligations, tax liens, and unpaid bills” that resulted from the vast renovation she was making to her adjoining townhouses on W 11th Steet, but also due to allegedly overstaging her photography shoots. Art Capital gave her a credit line of $24 million, but is now suing Leibovitz,  claiming “boldly deceptive conduct,” and a failure to pay back hundreds of thousands of dollars. What makes things really complicated is that Art Capital alleges Leibovitz signed an agreement that would give Art Capital the rights to sell her photographs and her homes, and to collect a commission on those sales, in order to  pay back the $24 million.

Art Capital Group wants the court to order the photographer to allow real estate agents to enter her townhouses to make an appraisal on the property with an eye toward liquidating the properties to meet her obligations.

Whether it’s celebrity foreclosures or celebs who can’t keep their financial house in order, it’s always fascinating theater to see how those who make millions make all the same mistakes we do — except on a grander scale.

(Photo courtesy New York Times)