US celebrity snapper faces copyright loss

Photographer Annie Leibovitz risks losing the rights to her famous images. The celebrity artist is £16 million in debt and if she doesn't pay the money back by the end of today she could have her work taken away. Court papers say overdue mortgages on four homes, unpaid taxes and payments towards stylists and designers make up the financial problem. Miss Leibovitz shot to fame in 1980 after taking a photo of John Lennon and Yoko Ono in a naked foetal position. Hours afterwards, the ex-Beatle was shot dead outside his New York appartment. The 59-year-old also took controversial pictures of the Queen and the 1991 nude image of a heavily pregnant Demi Moore. She is said to earn at least £3million a year from Vanity Fair magazine and freelance assignments. Her problems have been made worse after an Italian photographer, Paolo Pizetti, claimed Miss Leibovitz used pictures he took, and passed them off as her own in a 2009 calendar for a coffee company.

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ITN | September 8, 2009

Tags:. .homes. .outside. .papers. .heavily. .artist