Colony to Take Over Leibovitz Debt, Help Market Photographs

March 8 (Bloomberg) -- Colony Capital LLC agreed to take over the debt of Annie Leibovitz after the celebrity photographer bought back control of her works and real estate from Art Capital Group.

Colony, the private-equity firm owned by billionaire Thomas J. Barrack, will help market her photos under the agreement, according to a Financial Times article today that was confirmed by Lisa Baker, a spokeswoman for Los Angeles-based Colony. New York-based Art Capital, in a separate statement, said its loan to Leibovitz has been satisfied, without providing details.

Leibovitz, who photographed John Lennon hours before his death and captured Whoopi Goldberg in a bath of milk, in September renegotiated a $24 million loan to gain control of her photographs as well as her three brownstones in Manhattan’s West Village and a 228-acre property in Rhinebeck, New York. In return, the lender dropped its lawsuit against her.

Her financial troubles stem in part from properties she purchased and their ensuing renovations. From 1999 to 2008, Leibovitz borrowed and refinanced more than a dozen loans, using her real-estate assets as collateral, documents filed with New York City’s Finance Department show.

In 2007 and 2008, Leibovitz was late in paying $1.8 million in federal taxes, according to liens filed with the city’s finance department.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jonathan Keehner in New York at jkeehner@bloomberg.net; Christian Baumgaertel in Boston at cbaumgaertel@bloomberg.net