There don’t seem to be many heroes or innocent victim’s in the L’Affaire Leibovitz. New York Magazine story catalogues Art Capital Group’s own troubles with its hair-trigger legal strategy. In this case, the publicity involved seems to have spooked Goldman Sachs, the backer of the ACG’s loans:

Art Capital has treated borrowers aggressively in the past. In 2003, the company loaned $1.5 million to a wealthy young widow named Melanie Gill—who had inherited a large collection of museum-quality furniture—so she could buy a hotel and spa in New Orleans. After Gill missed one interest payment, Art Capital consigned her antiques to Christie’s and foreclosed on and sold her apartment. […]

Goldman Sachs, which helped finance the loan, now seems to be distancing itself from Art Capital and reaching out to Leibovitz. “We are deeply troubled by recent developments concerning Annie Leibovitz and Art Capital,” says Goldman spokeswoman Andrea Raphael. “Goldman Sachs owns a portion of the loan underwritten by an affiliate of Art Capital to Annie Leibovitz, but we have no involvement in the current sales-agreement dispute between Art Capital and Ms. Leibovitz. We have proposed to Art Capital that we terminate the current loan agreement with their affiliate so that we can work directly with Ms. Leibovitz to help her resolve her financing needs.”

Andrew Goldman also gives a little history on Ian Peck:

In 2008, with Leibovitz still seeking additional ways to borrow money, Starr told her about a company called Art Capital, founded by a New York entrepreneur named Ian Peck and co-owned by a man named Baird Ryan. The son of a successful art dealer and a wealthy developer, Peck had run a Madison Avenue gallery called Ian Peck Fine Paintings, then during the dot-com boom he established a short-lived website called FineArtLease.com, which sought to lease rather than sell expensive paintings to corporate clients. Formed in 1999, Art Capital would eventually loan money for a short period of time—a year and a half or less, usually—often at a relatively high interest rate, using art and antiques as collateral. For those who have most of their assets in art, particularly gallery owners and art dealers, this constituted a potentially valuable service, since banks are typically reluctant to loan against fine art and antiques because market valuations vary so wildly. Art Capital, however, was willing to make loans of up to 50 percent of the value of the collateral, and since valuations were often done in-house, the loans could be turned around quickly, often within days. […]

How Could This Happen to Annie Leibovitz? (New York Magazine)