Annie Leibovitz Could Lose Homes, Rights to Own Photographs
The art and fashion worlds are agog at the public nightmare that is Annie Leibovitz's financial situation. The highest paid photographer in the world, Annie is about to lose her houses, her art work and the rights to her own incredible photographs. She is about to be foreclosed upon by Art Capital Group, which loaned Annie $24 million. The company says she is behind on fees and has not cooperated in selling her art to pay off the loan. But what most people are wondering is: how in the world did she end up $24 million in debt in the first place?
The photographer, 59, declined to comment. Friends and colleagues said that despite her many successes, Ms. Leibovitz has been shadowed by a long history of less than careful financial dealings. Public records show that in the last two years, Ms. Leibovitz has faced tax liens of $1.4 million and two lawsuits claiming that she has not paid more than $700,000 in bills for photography services.
"The mind that can take these extraordinary pictures is not necessarily the same mind that is a perfect money manager," said Graydon Carter, the editor of Vanity Fair.
A recent series of personal issues has made navigating her already complex life more difficult, close associates said. In the last five years, Ms. Leibovitz lost her father, her mother and her companion, Susan Sontag; added two children to her family and oversaw the costly and controversial renovation of three properties in Greenwich Village.
Charlie Scheips, the former director of the Conde Nast photo archive who helped Ms. Leibovitz make a deal last year with an auction house to sell prints of her photographs, said that when he spoke to her recently, he was told: "I'm really under the gun. I've got three daughters, I lost my spouse. I've got too many jobs to do and it's chaos."
Matthew Hiltzik, a spokesman for Ms. Leibovitz, pointed a finger at the lender suing Ms. Leibovitz, Art Capital Group, a company in New York with a history of litigation over its boutique loans to artists, art dealers and collectors, who pledge their art works as collateral. "Annie is in the same shoes as many other people involved with Art Capital," Mr. Hiltzik said.
The firm, with offices in a former Sotheby's building on Madison Avenue, has been compared to a high-end pawn shop, and it has sued and been sued by a litany of clients and associates, including Julian Schnabel, its former lawyers and ex-employees.
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Friends and colleagues agree that it is not a taste for luxuries that has caused Ms. Leibovitz's financial difficulties. Although well known for extravagant spending while on assignment, those expenses are paid by her employers.
"Annie is not an expensive liver herself," said Tina Brown, who edited Vanity Fair from 1984 to 1992, where Ms. Leibovitz began working after her early years at Rolling Stone magazine. "She hangs out with her kids. She doesn’t hang out in the lights at the parties."
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In Life Through a Lens, a documentary about Ms. Leibovitz directed by her sister Barbara Leibovitz, Jann Wenner, the founder of Rolling Stone, said that he thought her move to Vanity Fair in 1983 might be good for her because she was at her "peak drug use and was so irresponsible, was leaving rental cars everywhere and not turning things in on time."
The New York Times article talks about her outrageous demands for her photo shoots -- fire, rain, airplanes or elephants, what she wants she gets. But the client pays for those expenses, not the photographer. There is lots of speculation about where her money went, but we have to wonder: did she invest with Bernie Madoff? It might explain a few things.
