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Asterix Cover Art Sells For 1.65 Million Dollars

Published Tue, 17 Oct 2017 09:00:19 -0500

The original cover art for the Asterix comic book Asterix And The Banquet, originally published as Le Tour de Gaule d'Astérix in 1963 has at auction in Paris for a record price of €1.4 million or $1.65 million.

This cover was created in india ink, then with gouache and colored inks and bears handwritten dedications from creators Rene Goscinny and Albert Uderzo to Pierre Tchernia – "At Pierre Tchernia, the modest testimony of sympathy in tribute to the Spirit and kindness of the great television man" – and it is his estate which put the artwork up for sale.

It went for seven to eight times the estimate, which was between €180,000 and 200,000.

The cover of another Asterix comic, Asterix And The Chieftain's Shield from 1968, originally, Le Bouclier arverne , which had the same estimate went for €1,197,000 or $1.4 million and had the dedication "To Pierre, Françoise and all the little Chernia with my very great friendship" sold 1,197,000 € (including costs).

The most expensive comic book art sold to date was the cover to Tintin And The Shooting Star for €2.5 million or $2.9 million. But this is nothing to sneeze at. And is certainly the most valuable art by Albert Uderzo ever sold.

Both pieces were bought by the same private collector.y.

The auction was arranged to coincide with the upcoming release of a new Asterix comic book and benefitted considerably from the publicity for this new volume, Asterix and the Chariot Race, set in ancient Italy, with a five million first printing.

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