(Brussels) The original design for the cover ofAsterix and Cleopatraby Albert Uderzo, will be put up for 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 had offered it “during a dinner with friends,” Millon said in a statement.
It is estimated between 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: Cleopatra mission (2002), the adventures of the Gaul in Egypt was a comic book album, the sixth in the series.
Uderzo parodies the poster of the big Hollywood production Cleopatrareleased 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 Tower of Gaulsold for 1.449 million euros.