A Hergé color drawing of Tintin and his dog Snowy sold for €505,000 (about $594,000) in a Paris auction on Saturday, November 18, 2017. The piece sold at Artcurial auction house as part of the Universe of the Tintin Creator sale ‒ a collection of drawings, toys, and figurines by Hergé (real name Georges Prosper Remi).
The 20-1/2 cm x 21 cm painting was composed of Indian ink and watercolor paint, depicting the duo with a butler in a royal palace. It was used as a cover illustration for a serialization of Herge’s story “King Ottokar’s Sceptre.” The art was published in 1939 in the newspaper Le Vingtieme Siecle and the story became Tintin’s eighth volume of stories. It was originally published in black and white.
“Original Tintin works are today becoming more and more rare at auction, especially those from the 1930s and 1940s,” Artcurial cartoons expert Eric Leroy said. “Collectors are more and more interested in drawings that were published before being gathered together in an album.”
In November 2016 a comic strip of Tintin and sailor captain Haddock sold for £1.3 million (over $1.7 million).