Annie Leibovitz pawns her artworks for $16m

You would think the internationally renowned photographer Annie Leibovitz (pictured) would not be short of a dollar or two. Think again. According to the New York Post, she has been impelled to turn to a company called Art Capital - an kind of up-market pawnbroker - offering her own artworks as collateral in order to raise a loan of $15.5m.

Quite why Leibovitz, 59, who photographed Michelle Obama for this month's US Vogue, needs such a sizeable sum is not known, but whatever it might be, her financial needs are clearly considerable.

Records show she secured the loan from Art Capital partly against her properties in upstate New York and Greenwich Village, but also by putting up as collateral the copyright, negatives and contract rights to every photograph she has ever taken or will take in future until them loans are paid off. In essence she has pawned her entire life's work.

And she is not alone. The Independent reports that the film director and artist Julian Schnabel, who has allegedly stretched his finances by investing in a massive gaudy-pink apartment complex in Manhattan - property prices in New York have been hit particularly badly hit by the credit crunch - has also put up work as collateral for loans.

Ian Peck, joint owner of Art Capital, says Leibovitz is part of a wider trend that has intensified since the start of the global economic crisis last autumn, causing wealthy individuals to turn to his firm for help. He said: "What's amazing is that individuals and institutions who previously we thought were untouchable are being deeply affected. People who were truly enormous financially are now scrambling." ·