Collectables: market in Tintin artwork takes off

Tintin, the Belgian boy-reporter cum adventurer, is in demand once again. Chris Carter reports.

Artwork for Le Lotus Bleu Tintin book © ©Artcurual
This rare Tintin artwork could set you back €3m
(Image credit: © Artcurual)

Last year, a drawing of young cartoon reporter Tintin carving a propeller from a tree trunk sold for $1.1m with Dallas-based Heritage Auctions. It was special because it was the original artwork used for the first published magazine cover to feature Tintin in February 1930. It was a fitting illustration because the market in artwork by Tintin’s Belgian creator, Georges Rémi, known as Hergé, has truly taken off in recent years. The current price record was set in 2014, when a signed page of drawings from 1937 fetched €2.6m with Artcurial. The Parisian auction house boasts that eight out of the ten most expensive works by Hergé at auction have gone under its hammer.

Tintin’s faux pas

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Chris Carter
Wealth Editor, MoneyWeek

Chris Carter spent three glorious years reading English literature on the beautiful Welsh coast at Aberystwyth University. Graduating in 2005, he left for the University of York to specialise in Renaissance literature for his MA, before returning to his native Twickenham, in southwest London. He joined a Richmond-based recruitment company, where he worked with several clients, including the Queen’s bank, Coutts, as well as the super luxury, Dorchester-owned Coworth Park country house hotel, near Ascot in Berkshire.

Then, in 2011, Chris joined MoneyWeek. Initially working as part of the website production team, Chris soon rose to the lofty heights of wealth editor, overseeing MoneyWeek’s Spending It lifestyle section. Chris travels the globe in pursuit of his work, soaking up the local culture and sampling the very finest in cuisine, hotels and resorts for the magazine’s discerning readership. He also enjoys writing his fortnightly page on collectables, delving into the fascinating world of auctions and art, classic cars, coins, watches, wine and whisky investing.

You can follow Chris on Instagram.