A double-page Tintin comic strip by the renowned Belgian cartoonist Herge has fetched a record 1.56 million euros (1.72 million U.S. dollars) at auction, Belgian newspaper Le Soir reported Sunday.
The sale on Oct. 24 by auction house Sotheby's in Paris saw 65 original items go under the hammer from the biggest names in European and American cartoons, all belonging to Belgium's biggest comic strip collector, Jean-Arnold Schoofs.
Le Soir reported that the auction raised a total of 2.7 million euros (2.97 million U.S. dollars), with five lots breaking world records -- including the highest price ever paid for a Herge drawing.
The double-page from Herge's Tintin and the Spectar of Ottokar, published in Le Petit Vingtieme in 1939, had a guide price of up to 800,000 euros (881,400 U.S. dollars) but was sold for almost double that amount after a bidding war between four potential buyers, the report added.
An Andre Franquin "Spirou et Fantasio" comic strip from the album "Les Pirates du Silence" sold for 243,000 euros. Two items by Edgar P. Jacobs fetched 62,500 and 147,000 euros respectively. (1 euro=1.10 U.S. dollars)
