Asterix cover art sells for N5.8m

The original cover art for comic book ‘Asterix and the Banquet’ has sold for a record price of $1.65 million (N5.8m) at an auction in Paris, Bleeding Cool has reported. The cover, originally published as Le Tour de Gaule d’Astérix in 1963, was created in india ink, then with gouache and coloured inks and bears […]

The original cover art for comic book ‘Asterix and the Banquet’ has sold for a record price of $1.65 million (N5.8m) at an auction in Paris, Bleeding Cool has reported.

The cover, originally published as Le Tour de Gaule d’Astérix in 1963, was created in india ink, then with gouache and coloured inks and bears handwritten dedications from creators Rene Goscinny and Albert Uderzo to Pierre Tchernia and it is his estate which put the artwork up for sale.

Another cover of Asterix comic, ‘Asterix And The Chieftain’s Shield’ from 1968, originally, Le Bouclier arverne, which had the same estimate went for $1.4 million.

The most expensive comic book art sold to date was the cover to ‘Tintin And The Shooting Star’ for $2.9 million. 

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. The Asterix comic book.

In January this year, Bleeding Cool reported that Sotheby in Paris sales house sold one page of original art from ‘Asterix And The Soothsayer’ by Albert Uderzo for 319,500 Euros. It was a record amount for an Asterix page sold openly at auction. The page, drawn in 1972, was given to the assistant editor of his German publisher as a gift back in 1975.