(Brussels) The original cover design of Asterix and Cleopatra, by Albert Uderzo, will be put on sale in Brussels on December 10, said the Millon auction house.
This 32×17 cm gouache drawing, dating from 1963, is sold by a collector who had held it for “more than 50 years”. Uderzo offered it “during a dinner with friends,” Millon said in a statement.
It is estimated at 400,000 to 500,000 euros ($600,000 to $745,000).
Before being a huge success at the cinema, with nearly 25 million admissions worldwide for Asterix and Obelix: Mission Cleopatra (2002), the adventures of the Gaul in Egypt were a comic book album, the sixth in the series.
Uderzo parodies the poster for the big Hollywood production Cleopatra, released in 1963, and at the time the most expensive film in history.
Uderzo’s Cleopatra takes the same pose as Elizabeth Taylor, Asterix replaces Julius Caesar played by Rex Harrison, and Obélix replaces Marc Antony played by Richard Burton. Asterix and Cleopatra was also adapted into a cartoon in 1968.
The auction record for an Asterix drawing was reached with another album cover, that of Tour de Gaule, sold for 1.449 million euros.
