The original cover art for the volume of “Asterix and Cleopatra,” created by comic strip creator Albert Uderzo, will be auctioned in Brussels on December 10, Mellon Auctions announced.
This gouache drawing, measuring 32 x 17 centimetres, dating back to 1963, will be sold by a collector who has kept it “for more than 50 years.” Mellon House indicated, in a statement, that Uderzo gave it to her “during dinner with friends.” Its estimated price is 500 thousand euros. Before Asterix and Obelix: Mission Cleopatra (2002) became a huge hit at the cinema, with revenues of around $25 million worldwide, Asterix’s Adventures in Egypt was a comic strip volume, the sixth in the Asterix series.
An animated film was also adapted from the story “Asterix and Cleopatra” in 1968. The record for a drawing from the “Asterix” series goes back to the cover of the “Tour de Gaulle” volume, which was sold for 1.449 million euros.
