An original page of artwork by Albert Uderzo for his Asterix and Obelix series sold for $341,411 at Sotheby’s Paris on January 21.
The piece (from Asterix the Soothsayer) headlined a sale of Franco-Belgian comic book art, achieving an increase of 77.5% on its valuation of $192,344.
Asterix is one of the world's most popular comic book series
Uderzo met his writing partner Rene Goscinny in 1951. They began producing comic strips together, including the popular series Oumpah-pah in 1958.
They came up with Asterix the Gaul while co-editing popular children’s magazine Pilote in 1959.
Along with Tintin, it’s one of the most successful Franco-Belgian comics of all time. The 36 volumes published to date have sold 325m copies worldwide.
In recent years the value of Tintin artwork has been climbing steadily, with original pages selling for sums in the low millions.
The growth of this market appears to be having an effect on the value of Asterix artwork. In 2015, a page from Asterix and the Great Crossing realized $255,688 – almost double its estimate.
The popularity of the series, which appeals to a similar demographic as Tintin, is likely to keep driving prices up in the future.
The rest of the sale featured art from books that are less well known in the Anglophone world, including Enrico Marini’s Rapaces and Maurice Tillaux’s Gil Jourdan series.
Please sign up to our free newsletter to receive exciting news about book and manuscript auctions.
