Photographer Leibovitz: Repay Loan or Lose Portfolio

A celebrity photographer being sued for breach of contract may lose the rights to her entire collection of prominent photographs.

Annie Leibovitz, famous for her photographs of celebrities, many of which have appeared on the cover of Vanity Fair, borrowed a $24 million dollar loan from the Art Capital Group, offering three Greenwich Village townhouses, property in upstate New York, and the copyright to each of her photographs as collateral, the Associated Press reports. Leibovitz reportedly requested the loan to handle mortgage, tax, and other financial obligations.

ACG claims that the photographer agreed that her assets could be sold if she did repay her loan by Tuesday. The lending group is now filing a suit charging that Leibovitz has not repaid the money, has blocked the company's efforts to sell her assets, and has refused to allow experts to appraise the value of her assets.

The lender estimates that Leibovitz's properties and celebrated portfolio retain a value of about $80 million.

ACG representative Monteith Illingworth told the news source that the company has "clear contractual rights and will protect them in any scenario." The organization seeks an unspecified amount of damages in addition to the money it disbursed in the initial loan.