World record!
This Thursday January 14, around 2:45 p.m., a preparatory design for the cover of the “Blue Lotus”, produced by Hergé in 1936, was sold for 2.6 million euros in Paris, by the auction house Artcurial.
That is to say a little more than the auction of May 2014 for the design of the double cover page of the albums of Tintin sold more than 2.6 million euros but with the expenses included.
It took less than 10 minutes for the price to skyrocket.
This comic book masterpiece, a unique piece in Indian ink, watercolor and gouache, was estimated at between 2 and 3 million.
In a room where only about fifty buyers had been authorized due to health directives, the auctions started at 1.5 million euros.
They hesitated for a long time between 2, 4 and 2, 5 million euros before a buyer on the phone, whose identity has not yet been revealed, picks up the cup of lot n ° 18.
A controversy over the provenance of the work
The record was eagerly awaited as the piece may be considered the “Grail” for any collector of Tintin and an excellent investment for any lover of contemporary art, as Hergé's price has risen in recent years.
The sale had also been extremely publicized because object to controversy.
Coming from the estate of Jean-Paul Casterman, printer of Tintin's albums, the drawing indeed retains some mysteries about its origin.
For the sales expert, Eric Leroy, relying on the statements of the printer, there is no doubt that this is a gift offered by the designer to the young Jean-Paul Casterman there is over 80 years old.
A version that none of the specialists of the work believe: all lean for a drawing that would never have been returned to Hergé and that would have slept in the cupboards for a long time, before ending up on sale this Thursday.
When the sale was announced, Nick Rodwell, husband of Hergé's widow and in charge of managing the inheritance, had even demanded that the Casterman heirs "give him the drawing because his place is at the Hergé museum" … In vain: the most expensive Tintin in the world is now in the hands of a collector.
