An event announced on Friday February 10 for "tintinophiles", the Artcurial
L'Univers d'Hergé
sale put up for auction no less than 104 lots dedicated to the universe of the designer of Tintin and Snowy.
Among them, the experts expected that lot n° 12, the cover signed Hergé produced in 1942 of
Tintin in America,
would arouse the covetousness of collectors.
“It is an emblematic image, very rare,
explained at the beginning of the week the expert of the Hergé sale, Éric Leroy.
Even though I had known him for more than twenty-five years, this drawing comes out of nowhere.
It has never been offered for sale.
»
Read alsoHergé, very expensive auctions in stock for the board of “Tintin in America”
In less than three minutes, lot no. 12, the original cover of
Tintin in America
, produced in 1942 by Hergé, was hammered at 1.7 million euros.
(€2,158,400 including costs) from a collector by telephone.
The original cover of
Tintin in America
, put up for sale by Artcurial, sold for 1.7 million euros (2.158000 million including fees).
Sébastien Soriano /Le Figaro/CREDIT PHOTO HERGÉ/ TINTINIMAGINATIO 2023
Éric Leroy, who has been working on Hergé sales for more than twenty-five years, noted in answering questions from
Le Figaro
:
“Hergé has also won his letters of nobility thanks to auctions
.
Its rating is rising exponentially year after year.
It is a real artistic recognition.
It all started in 1994. The sale of a small cover of
The Black Island,
sold for 510,000 francs, or 77,750 euros, had set a first world record.
Auction records
In 1997 at Drouot, a board of
Ottokar's Scepter
exceeded 200,000 euros.
In 2008, Tintin's gouache
in America
sold for 753,000 euros, before being put back on the market in 2011 to snap up 1.3 million euros.
In 2014, the endpapers of Tintin albums broke a new record at 2.6 million euros.
In 2017, a board of
We walked on the Moon
sold for 1.55 million euros.
Two years ago, the cover of the 1936
Lotus Bleu
reached 3.2 million euros.
Two other very beautiful pieces also left at impressive prices.
The penciled plate on page 42 of
Coke en Stock
(lot no. 13) was acquired for €165,000.
As for the one on page 4 of
Flight 714 for Sydney
(lot n° 14), it sold for €160,000 in the hammer.