Rare Tintin cover fetches $1.6mn
A rare 1932 cover illustration of "Tintin in America" by Herge, the artist who dreamed up the boy reporter, on Saturday fetched a record 1.3 million euros ($1.6 million) at an auction in Paris.
A rare 1932 cover illustration of "Tintin in America" by Herge, the artist who dreamed up the boy reporter, on Saturday fetched a record 1.3 million euros ($1.6 million) at an auction in Paris.
"The work has been sold at 1,338,509.20 euros, costs included, by a person who wishes to remain anonymous," a spokesman for the auctioneers, Artcurial, said.
The previous owner, another Tintin collector, had bought it for 764,218 euros in 2008.
While Artcurial had not announced an estimate of what they thought it would fetch this time, a spokesman said they had expected it to break the one-million-euro mark.
Belgian comic book artist Herve painted the Indian ink and gouache colour cover for the first edition of the book, which first appeared in 1934.
One of only five such works of cover art remaining by Herve, it shows the Tintin dressed as a cowboy sitting on a rock, his dog Snowy at his side, as three Indians, two wielding axes, creep up behind him.