TINTIN ARTWORK SELLS FOR $3.9 MILLION

An original one-of-a-kind colour artwork by Tintin creator Hergé recently sold for $3.9 million. The sale took place last week at an auction in Paris.

Sure, it’s an original artwork by a very famous and awesome cartoonist, but somebody actually paid millions of dollars for a drawing that wasn’t good enough to feature on a comic book cover?

Here’s some background… the picture was made in 1936 by the Belgian cartoonist but was rejected as the cover for the fifth volume of The Adventures Of Tintin In The Far East: The Blue Lotus. This specific volume focused on Tintin’s travels to China during the Japanese invasion of 1931 reports News24.

Reuters recently predicted that the artwork could fetch more than $2.4 million on auction, but no one expected the drawing to reach even way more than that.

News24 reports that the reason for the artwork being rejected as the cover was because of the various colours used. Back in the day it would have costed too much to print all the dark colours. Hergé then drew a cheaper version and gave the original darker artwork as a gift to his publisher’s son. It has remained in the family until it was sold in Paris.

We’re just thinking out loud here, but if a colleague of ours ever give our kids a drawing, it’s going straight to the safe. You never know…

Watch the Reuters video below for more info on the drawing.

Image credit: Archyde