A piece of original Tintin art sold at auction on November 19, 2016 in Paris for $1.64 million, blowing away the early estimates that expected it to sell for somewhere between approximately $750,000 and $950,000. The piece by Herge is from the 1954 book Explorers on the Moon and depicts Tintin, Snowy and Captain Haddock on the surface of the moon.

The sale was a record for a one-page strip by Herge, according to the Artcurial auction house. Explorers on the Moon is considered one of Herge’s best works, likely leading to the high price realized.

"It is one of the most important from Herge's postwar period, on the same level as Tintin in Tibet and The Castafiore Emerald," Artcurial's comics expert Eric Leroy told the BBC.

Previous examples of Tintin art at auction have also realized high prices, such as a two-page spread from King Ottokar’s Sceptre going for $1.7 million in 2015, and the original cover for The Shooting Star selling for $2.8 million that same year.