At the Times: That Old Master? It’s at the Pawnshop

by Art Fag City on February 24, 2009 · 6 comments Newswire

art capital group, art fag city
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?

{ 6 comments }

Casey McKinney February 24, 2009 at 7:53 pm

Did you ever do a post about that NPR debate of whether the art market or the stock market was more (or less) ethical? I caught the tale end of that in the car on Oscar night (a repeat I think) http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=100557165. (Oh now I see it a link on the right there). By the way congrats on the Warhol grant. Art Fag City has really bloomed. It’s amazing, congrats!

Casey McKinney February 24, 2009 at 7:53 pm

Did you ever do a post about that NPR debate of whether the art market or the stock market was more (or less) ethical? I caught the tale end of that in the car on Oscar night (a repeat I think) http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=100557165. (Oh now I see it a link on the right there). By the way congrats on the Warhol grant. Art Fag City has really bloomed. It’s amazing, congrats!

Casey McKinney February 24, 2009 at 2:53 pm

Did you ever do a post about that NPR debate of whether the art market or the stock market was more (or less) ethical? I caught the tale end of that in the car on Oscar night (a repeat I think) http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=100557165. (Oh now I see it a link on the right there). By the way congrats on the Warhol grant. Art Fag City has really bloomed. It’s amazing, congrats!

Jessica March 17, 2009 at 5:17 pm

Liebovitz owes the government a large sum in taxes due to her inheritance from Sontag.

Jessica March 17, 2009 at 5:17 pm

Liebovitz owes the government a large sum in taxes due to her inheritance from Sontag.

Jessica March 17, 2009 at 12:17 pm

Liebovitz owes the government a large sum in taxes due to her inheritance from Sontag.

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