Mar 11, 2026
For most Americans, borrowing money means tapping home equity or refinancing a car. For billionaires, it can mean borrowing against a Picasso.
Recently released court records from the Epstein files — thousands of pages of documents tied to criminal investigations into sex trafficking by financier Jeffrey Epstein — are also pulling back the curtain on how the ultra-wealthy move money.
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Alongside the deeply disturbing material contained in the filings, the documents reveal how members of what’s often referred to as the “Epstein class” relied on elite financial networks and unconventional assets to access large sums of capital.
One example is Leon Black, the billionaire cofounder of Apollo Global Management, who took out a $484 million loan in 2015 using his private art collection as collateral (1). The loan, issued by Bank of America, was backed by high-value works from artists including Picasso, Giacometti, Cézanne and Matisse, according to court documents (2).
Black, whose fortune is estimated at $13.6 billion (3), built much of his wealth through his stake in Apollo and his art collection. The files gave insight on Epstein’s role in Black’s finances: Black paid Epstein roughly $170 million over six years for financial and tax advice.
Borrowing against a multibillion-dollar art portfolio
Court records show that Leon Black didn’t borrow against just a few individual artworks. Instead, he used a large share of his art collection to secure loans.
Private banks typically lend against art using a loan-to-value (LTV) ratio — a measure that determines how much a lender will extend based on an asset’s appraised value. For art, those ratios usually top out around 50%, meaning borrowers can access about half of a collection’s estimated worth. That’s lower than real estate, where LTVs often reach closer to 80%.
According to a document titled Art Partnership Inventory included in the Epstein files, by 2014, entities tied to Black had roughly $1 billion worth of artwork as collateral. By 2017, that amount grew to about $1.4 billion (2). At the end of 2015, Black had more than $600 million in loans outstanding (4).
Those arrangements later came under scrutiny because of Black’s ties to Epstein. A 2021 review by the law firm Dechert LLP (5) found no evidence of wrongdoing by Black, though it noted Epstein’s involvement in managing and organizing parts of the art collection. But as scrutiny intensified, Black resigned as CEO of Apollo that year, and stepped down as chair of the Museum of Modern Art’s board of trustees (3).
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Separately, Sen. Ron Wyden, who chairs the Senate Finance Committee, has raised broader concerns about how art and other high-value assets can be used in aggressive tax strategies (3).
Black’s borrowing is not unusual among the ultra-wealthy. It reflects a strategy known as “buy, borrow, die,” where individuals avoid selling valuable assets and triggering taxes by borrowing against them instead, often holding those assets until death (6).
The global market for art-backed loans is estimated at $33 billion to $40 billion and is expected to surpass $50 billion by 2028, according to a report by Deloitte and ArtTactic (7).
“It’s the best of both worlds,” Adam Chinn, managing partner of International Art Finance, told CNBC (1). “You can monetize an otherwise non-income-producing asset. And it’s still great to look at.”
Art-backed loans are often used by wealthy borrowers to access cash or invest elsewhere, typically at low interest rates. In Black’s case, court records show his loan carried an interest rate of about 1.43% in 2015. Selling artwork, by contrast, can trigger a combined federal tax rate of roughly 31.8% (1).
“Art is the most underleveraged asset on the planet,” Chinn told CNBC.
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For everyday borrowers, the idea is similar to tapping home equity using an asset you already own to raise cash without selling it. The difference is cost. While wealthy clients may secure art-backed loans at very low rates, home equity loans and lines of credit carry interest rates closer to 7% to 8% as of early 2026.
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What this means for everyday investors
Most Americans don’t have millions of dollars worth of art sitting on their walls or in storage to borrow against. But, along the same idea that drives art-backed loans for billionaires, using assets outside the stock market to diversify wealth can still apply on a smaller scale.
Art is still an option. Over the past decade, fine art prices rose about 91%, according to the Knight Frank Wealth Report (8). While buying bluechip artwork is out of reach for most people, online platforms now allow investors to buy fractional shares of fine art, lowering the upfront cost and making the market more accessible. That said, these investments can come with higher fees, limited liquidity and longer holding periods than traditional stocks.
Other alternative assets are also gaining attention. The global sneaker resale market, for example, was valued at about $10.6 billion in 2022 and is projected to grow significantly over the next decade (9). Value in that market depends on factors like condition, rarity, cultural relevance and demand, meaning returns aren’t guaranteed and require industry knowledge to get right.
Fine wine is another asset some investors use to diversify. Wine prices tend to move in cycles and don’t always track the stock market, which can make them more resilient during periods of economic uncertainty. Still, investing in wine comes with practical challenges, including storage costs, insurance and the risk of price swings if demand cools.
These assets aren’t replacements for a diversified portfolio, but they can be additions for those who understand the risks and can afford to tie up money for long periods.
Article sources
We rely only on vetted sources and credible third-party reporting. For details, see our editorial ethics and guidelines.
CNBC (1); U.S. Department of Justice (2), (4); Forbes (3); Reuters (5); SmartAsset (6); Deloitte (7); Barron’s (8); Market Decipher (9)
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Victoria Vesovski is a Toronto-based Staff Reporter at Moneywise, where she covers the intersection of personal finance, lifestyle and trending news. She holds an Honours Bachelor of Arts from the University of Toronto, a postgraduate certificate in Publishing from Toronto Metropolitan University and a Master’s degree in American Journalism from New York University’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute. Her work has been featured in publications including Apple News, Yahoo Finance, MSN Money, Her Campus Media and The Click.
