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Chicago Artist Kerry James Marshall’s Painting Sold To Hip Hop Mogul P. Diddy For $21 Million

Chicago Artist Kerry James Marshall's Painting Sold To Hip Hop Mogul P. Diddy For $21 Million

“Past Times,” acrylic and collage on canvas, by Chicago’s Kerry James Marshall (1997). (Nathan Keay / MCA Chicago / CTMG)Hip-hop mogul P. Diddy has been revealed as the buyer of Chicago artist Kerry James Marshall’s “Past Times,” the work that sold at auction this week for $21 million, a price believed to be near the maximum paid for a living artist.

Marshall’s New York dealer, Jack Shainman, told the New York Times that P. Diddy, whose real name is Sean Combs, is the work’s buyer.

I know that this work has found a home in a collection with purpose and an eye toward preserving legacy — that of Sean Combs, and that means a lot,” Shainman said in the Times report.

Celebrity art collectors, and rapper art collectors in particular, are nothing new. P. Diddy went public in a significant way with his predilections in 2011 when he splashed for a pair of works at Art Basel in Miami Beach, where he has become something of a fixture. Jay-Zis rumored to be the rap music world’s biggest collector of works, with a hoard estimated in value at something around a half-billion dollars.

Producer Swizz Beatz acquired an Ansel Adams photograph when still a teenager, and has a substantial collection. The megasale to P. Diddy, however, lays down a significant marker. Given the new attention being paid to African-American artists in the market, other eye-opening auction prices could follow.

 Like Jay-Z, who enlisted art adviser Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn in the late oughts, P. Diddy hired art adviser Maria Brito when he began collecting, to help him fine-tune his eye and expand his collection.

 

 See more-  Source:  Chicago Tribune

 

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