Ian Peck, left, and Baird Ryan of Art Capital Group with art, once collateral, that it now owns. Photograph: Béatrice de Géa for The New York Times
The New York Times reports photographer Annie Leibovitz leveraged all the rights to her photographs as collateral for a 10.5 million dollar loan. The article doesn’t reveal too much by way of gossipy details regarding why the artist needs the money — apparently mortgages and “other financial stresses” are the source of the problem — but the more interesting tidbit from this article lies elsewhere anyway.
“The town house, there’s no equity behind it, the house at the beach is at half or a third of what they had it valued at last year,” [Baird Ryan, a co-owner the lending company Art Capital Group] said. “All of a sudden, the art becomes a very important asset.”
Perhaps this explains Christie’s whopping $264 million Yves Saint Laurent art sale last night?
