The Little Prince watercolours fetch 500,000 euros at Paris auction

The auction included several other de Saint-Exupery works, including a set of 11 preparatory drawings for the iconic book. The Little Prince (1943) has sold 145 million copies worldwide and been translated into 270 languages.

Two watercolours of The Little Prince, French polymath Antoine de Saint-Exupery’s world-famous golden-haired creation, sold for more than half a million euros at an auction in Paris on Wednesday.

A notebook (left) belonging to artist Antoine de Saint-Exupery and a drawing on display at the Museum of Old Toulouse prior to the sale of a set of 12 drawings and 7 letters by de Saint-Exupery. (Remy Gabalda/AFP)

The first work, an A4-sized image of the children’s character watching a sunset, smashed its estimate to sell for 294,000 euros (over Rs 2 crore), according to the Artcurial auction house.

A drawing by Antoine de Saint-Exupery at the Museum of Old Toulouse prior to the sale of a set of 11 drawings and 7 letters by de Saint-Exupery

The second piece depicting the prince lying on his stomach in a rose garden sold for 226,000 euros (Rs 1.6 crore).

The second drawing which depicts the prince lying in a rose garden.

“The prices reached by these iconic images are commensurate with this universal work and its international reputation,” said Guillaume Romaneix, a books and manuscript specialist with Artcurial.

The Paris auction included several other de Saint-Exupery works, including a set of 11 preparatory drawings for the iconic book which went for 104,000 euros.

The author escaped to the US after Germany’s invasion of France and it was during his exile there in 1942 that he wrote his famous book. It was first published in 1943.

Saint-Exupery mysteriously disappeared somewhere near Marseille on July 31, 1944, shortly after taking off on a wartime mission.

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