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You are here: Home Leisure Arts & Culture Comic book originals break into art market

30/03/2008Comic book originals break into art market

Original comic book artwork, from the boy adventurer Tintin to the cowboy Lucky Luke, is breaking into the European fine art market.

   Original comic book artwork, from the boy adventurer Tintin to the cowboy Lucky Luke, is breaking into the European fine art market, fetching ever higher prices at auction, experts say.

   A 1932 oil painted for by the Belgian author Herge for the cover of "Tintin
in America" is the star item at a one-off sale of 650 comic originals Saturday
in Paris, with a starting price of 280,000 euros (440,000 dollars).

   "A museum piece. Sublime," writes the Artcurial gallery and auction house,
which is organising the sale, in its catalogue.

   The Tintin is expected to beat the world record set last year by
Yugoslav-born French science fiction artist Enki Bilal with an illustration
from his 1994 work "Blue Blood", which sold for 177,000 euros.

   "It's a booming market, we've got buyers from all over Europe. People are no longer ashamed to say they collect BD," said Eric Leroy, expert at the gallery.

   With some 4,300 "Bande Dessinee" albums (or BD -- literally, drawn strip)
published last year, France and Belgium see themselves as the art form's creative centre.

   According to the organisers of the annual Angouleme BD festival, the leading Chinese, Koreans, and North American comic artists all cite French and Belgian BD as key influences -- boosting their cult status and value in the art world.


   World leader in the field, Artcurial's annual spring auction of original BD
artwork has become a diary date for collectors.

   Comic book first editions have long been sought after at auction: in the
United States, a 1962 Amazing Fantasy comic -- featuring the first-ever
Spider-Man strip -- sold in October for 227,000 dollars, the highest ever for
a 1960s comic.

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