Tintin Art Sale Sets Record With $1.6 Million

The original artwork for the cover of 1932’s Tintin in America has set a record for the sale of comic book art, fetching $1.6 million (1.3 million euros) at Paris auction Artcurial Saturday, according to reports.

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The same artwork, drawn by Tintin creator Herge with Indian ink and gouache, set the previous record when it sold in 2008 for $973,000.

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Tintin in America is the third volume of the Tintin adventure books and collects the serials that ran in the newspaper supplement Le petit vingtieme.

Only five covers are known to exist and two of them are in private hands. The buyer was anonymous and, according to reports, was represented at the sale by a friend.

In American comic art, the record is held by the 2011 sale of a splash page from The Dark Knight Returns, the seminal 1986 mini-series by Frank Miller and Klaus Janson, which sold for $448,125.

The Artcurial auction was an all-Tintin affair, and the popularity of the boy reporter shows no signs of waning. Another piece of art, sketches from the the1968 book Flight 714 to Sydney, sold in the low six figures. One of the highlights was the sale of an edition of Explorers on the Moon, signed by Herge as well as astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins, which hammered to a $42,000 price.