Celebrity photographer and out lesbian Annie Leibovitz risks losing the copyright to her beautiful images - and her entire life's work - if she doesn't pay back a $24 million loan that is now due in just hours, according to the NYDN.
In July, Art Capital filed a lawsuit in state Supreme Court claiming the famed photographer owed it hundreds of thousands of dollars in past due fees and was not cooperating with its efforts to sell her photographic archive.
In that lawsuit, the lender made it clear that it had extended the $24 million to Leibovitz and that she was to pay it back no later than Sept. 8, 2009.
To make matters worse, on Monday Italian photographer Paolo Pizzetti claimed she used photos he took in Venice and Rome, and passed them off as her own in a 2009 calendar for a coffee company.
Pizzetti said he took the pictures to illustrate locations for Leibovitz, 59, who was then supposed to take her own photos. He is seeking a court order to stop the images from being used and monetary compensation for copyright infringement.
ACG took the properties - three historic town houses in New York's trendy Greenwich Village and a country estate in Rheinbeck, upstate New York, as collateral for the loan along with all rights to her past and future work.
Experts say Leibovitz's best bet is to file for bankruptcy reorganization, which would protect her assets and give her time to refinance.
ACG has estimated the value of the Leibovitz portfolio at $40 million; real estate brokers say her New York properties are worth about $40 million.
Leibovitz first hit the headlines with a 1980 photo of John Lennon and Yoko Ono curled naked together, taken just hours before the ex-Beatle was shot.
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