Tintin strip fails to find buyer at Paris auction
Although comic artist Hergé holds the record for auction prices for cartoons, an original strip for his Tintin book The Shooting Star failed to find a buyer at auction in central Paris on Sunday.
Issued on: Modified:
The auction of 299 items linked to comics art raised 1.3 million euros with a work by French artist Moebius raising 114,400 euros, five times its estimated value.
But the strip by Hergé, showing the boy detective and Captain Haddock sitting down to eat in a storm at sea while scientists on their ship are struck down by sea-sickness, was not sold because its reserve price of 170,000 euros was not reached.
It was drawn in India ink on paper in 1941-42.
An invitation card drawn and signed by Hergé and printed in a limited edition of 100 did sell, however, raising 72,800 euros, far higher than its estimated price of 25,000-35,000 euros.
The Artcurial auction house, which put on the sale, sold a two-page spread by the Belgian artist for 2.6 million euros in 2014.
Artcurial is situated on Paris's Champs Elysées Avenue.
The auction had been scheduled for Saturday but was postponed to Sunday because of the Yellow Vest protest in Paris.
Daily newsletterReceive essential international news every morning
Subscribe