Photographer Annie Leibovitz has been liberated once again from an impending loss of her collection of images and real estate assets after securing a new deal with Colony Capital LLC, a private real estate investment and advisory firm.
Under the new agreement, which was signed in April, Colony is now the sole creditor of Leibovitz's assets. Additionally, Colony has repaid Leibovitz's outstanding loan of $24 million from the New York-based Art Capital Group, which the photographer failed to pay in September 2009.
Although Leibovitz will retain control of the rights to her collection of more than 100,000 images, Colony will now help her balance her debts through traveling exhibitions of her prints and books, as well as other methods of revenue generation. This is Colony's second celebrity client. In May 2008, Colony purchased a loan with a face value of about $23.5 million on Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch.