Photographer Annie Leibovitz Forced To Pawn Her Life's Work

[girl gone mad]

Photographer Annie Leibovitz Forced To Pawn Her Life's Work
http://www.businessinsider.com/photographer-annie-leibovitz-forced-to-pawn-all-her-work-2009-2

For a lot of folks, art is turning out to be their one asset that's stored some value. Sure, the market is down, but a famous painting is still a famous painting. J. Ezra Merkin is liquidating his art, as are many other Madoff victims. Some artists are even being forced to liquidate their own work.

Turns out the famed photographer Annie Liebovitz has run into financial hardship, and has gone to a firm called Art Capital Group to pawn off her entire collection (and even her future works), until she pays off her personal debts.

Anyway, Art Capital's business is booming:

Art Capital issues loans of $500,000 or more at interest rates from 6 percent to 16 percent. Fail to pay and you lose your Rubens; several of the works on display in Art Capital’s office on Madison became subject to sale after their owners defaulted.

The company expects to make about $120 million in art-related loans in 2009, up from $80 million in 2008. At a Manhattan-based competitor, Art Finance Partners, “we are up 40 percent in originations in the last six months,” said Meghan Carleton, a partner.

[EFerrari]

1. That's horrible! I wonder what happened. n/t

[babylonsister]

2. I wonder if Madoff was involved? Nope, can't find anything

to suggest that anyway. Poor Annie.

[EFerrari]

3. It has to be something like him or Stanford. n/t

[xchrom]

4. interesting -- very very interesting.

maybe one the more apt and poignant metaphors for our time.

[skooooo]

5. Well..sorry to hear this..

But it's hard to be too sympathetic. She should have made enough by now to live comfortably the rest of her life, shouldn't she?

[Berry Cool]

6. Well, if she invested it poorly, it may all be gone.

I'm sympathetic to people who made bad investments and now have nothing to show for their hard work--because I'm sure at least part of the reason their investment is gone is because someone somewhere along the line fleeced them.

[xiamiam]

7. like the whole country...nt

[lib2DaBone]

8. ..that is so sad.. she is truly an American Artist......

once again.. it is the Republican way to blame the victims.

How many champion Prize fighters have you heard of that died penniless? How many musical icons have you heard of that died penniless? It is not really that difficult to blow a career.

Most tax payers in this day and age (who have played by the rules all their life) find themselves penniless and foreclosed. What if they didn't buy a big screen or a Hummer? Is then, this depression their fault? Our media would have you believe so.

This Depression is the greatest transfer of wealth from the workers to the ruling class.. that the world has ever seen.

And as we continue to shovel billions to the Bankster/Gangsters ,(all the while, Citi Group and Bank of America hold opulent Conferences at fancy resorts and pay their Executives million dollar bonuses), America focuses on Octuplets and Fox News.

What is strange and odious.. is that main-street America says nothing? (Other than to blame the victims because they who ended up broke may not have been lucky enough to hold a VP job at Bank of America). Rush Limbaugh and the Republicans have spread their poison to the depths of America...so deep, in fact, that few even question the talking points anymore.

BTW .. 5 American Soldiers were killed today in Iraq and Afghanistan... and tomorrow is Wednesday... just another day in Republican Bizarro World.

[spanone]

9. i think 'pawn' is a misstatement...she's selling her art

[girl gone mad]

10. Not exactly.

She took out a loan against her work and wasn't able to pay it off. Definitely not a traditional auction.

[aikoaiko]

11. better than doubling up at the plasma center.

I don't get what the problem is. She's having a cash crunch, she's using assets to get a loan, and she can pay it back or not.

[Stinky The Clown]

12. I hate hearing shit like this