Spokesman: Leibovitz Working to Resolve Loan Issue

File - American photographer Annie Leibovitz arrives at Buckingham Palace in London, in this March...

File - American photographer Annie Leibovitz arrives at Buckingham Palace in London, in this March 27 , 2007 file photo. The deadline for the celebrity photographer to repay a $24 million loan passed Tuesday night Sept. 8, 2009 without word from either involved party. Leibovitz risked losing the lucrative copyright to her images if she didn't pay back the loan. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth/pool, File)

(AP)

Celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz was still trying to resolve a dispute with a company that loaned her $24 million — money that she had to repay this week or lose the rights to her life's work, her spokesman said Wednesday.

The lender, Art Capital Group, sued the 59-year-old Leibovitz in July, claiming she breached an agreement that authorized it to act as the agent in the sale of her photography and real estate.

The deadline to repay the loan passed at 11:59 p.m. Tuesday without either party saying what would happen next.

Leibovitz, whose portraits have regularly graced the covers of Vanity Fair, Vogue and Rolling Stone, risked losing the lucrative copyright to her images if she didn't pay back the loan. Last year, Leibovitz put up as collateral three Manhattan townhouses, an upstate New York property and the copyright to every picture she has ever taken — or will take — to secure the loan.

"Annie is continuing to work to resolve this matter with Art Capital," her spokesman, Matthew Hiltzik, said Wednesday.

Art Capital, a Manhattan-based company that issues short-term loans against fine and decorative arts and real estate, declined to comment after the deadline passed.

While the two sides worked quietly to try to resolve the situation, an intellectual property expert not involved in the case said there is a chance for a deal.

"Maybe there's another lender, or a good Samaritan or angel ... to help Annie Leibovitz reach a settlement," William Heller, an intellectual property lawyer at McCarter & English.

Art Capital could renegotiate to allow her time to make payments, extend the loan for a period of time or accept the intellectual copyrights to only part of the collection, he said. The company has legitimate rights under its current agreement, but the case had "an emotional component" that might make it "want to consider some type of negotiated solution rather than a litigated solution."