Rare signed copy of Tintin in America fetches more than 190,000 euros at auction
A rare copy of Tintin in America, featuring a personal inscription from its creator, Hergé, has sold at auction in France for 191,145 euros, auction house Tajan eports.
The copy, published by Le Petit Vingtième in 1932, holds particular significance as it is the only edition marked with “10e mille.” Hergé signed the album on 5 December 1933, dedicating it to his friend and mentor Charles Helsen, who had been a religious education teacher for scouts at Brussels’ Institut Saint-Boniface, where Hergé attended school for five years.
In his inscription, Hergé wrote: “To Mr. Father Helsen, in memory of the good years under his leadership, in search of adventure in the Sonian Forest, the Alps and the Pyrenees... Besides, Tintin is just another me who would have continued on this path fully…”
The copy came from the collection of Felipe Ortiz-Patiño, a descendant of the Bolivian industrialist Simón Iturri Patiño.
Tajan reported that 48 of the 75 auctioned items sold, generating a total of more than 934,000 euros. Among these was a signed copy of the original 1931 edition of Tintin in the Congo, which fetched 101,944 euros.
Tintin remains one of the most sought-after comic book heroes at auction houses. In 2021, an unused illustration for the cover of The Blue Lotus from 1936 set a record, selling for more than 3.1 million euros.
© PHOTO BELPRESS
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