Sean Combs, the rapper and record executive known as Diddy, was sentenced on Friday to 50 months in federal prison and fined $500,000 after being convicted on two counts of transportation for prostitution. Combs, who made headlines in 2018 for buying Kerry James Marshall's painting *Past Times* for $21.1 million at Sotheby's, was acquitted of racketeering and sex trafficking charges. During the sentencing, Judge Arun Subramanian noted Combs's abuse of power over women, while Combs apologized to his ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura, calling his behavior "disgusting, shameful and sick."
The case matters to the art world because Combs was a high-profile art collector whose purchase of Marshall's *Past Times* set an auction record for the artist and made Marshall the most expensive living African American artist at the time. The painting is currently on view in Marshall's retrospective at the Royal Academy of Arts in London, with its owner unnamed in the wall text. Combs's collection, which also includes works by Tracey Emin, Brett Murray, and Random International, may face seizure by the Department of Justice following his conviction, potentially impacting the art market and provenance of these works.