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Sothebys

Started by suspense39,

29 posts in this topic

oldwhy

oldwhy

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Looking at these estimates and considering the fantastic results of past European auctions my only questions is:

 

Is the European market overvalued or is the US market undervalued?

 

EUR 250k for an Asterix panel page? Which US artist would sell on that level?

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suspense39

suspense39

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I'm not too familiar with European collectors, but it seems there are a bit more history conscious and a little less nostalgia. I really like the size and selection of work, even though I don't know much of the European art, it looks visually strong.

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Eltanin

Eltanin

Posted
Posted
Looking at these estimates and considering the fantastic results of past European auctions my only questions is:

 

Is the European market overvalued or is the US market undervalued?

 

EUR 250k for an Asterix panel page? Which US artist would sell on that level?

 

A few elements that may partly explain the situation:

-There are no, or very few, splash pages in european comic art, especially for the classics. There are almost only panel pages, so a panel page is considered a normal page from a european collector point of view, and thus collectors don't look down on panel pages. The title pages are the closest thing you can get to a half-splash, and as there is only one per book, they are very rare (and usually, there isn't a lot of action going on in them since it's just the beginning of the story).

-European artists typically produce fewer pages than their american counterpart. An Astérix comics has 42 pages. There are 34 albums drawn by Uderzo. This amount to around 1400 total Astérix pages. Uderzo drew some earlier stuff, but not enough to drastically change the ballpark of this total. If you compare this with the number of pages drawn by Kirby or Eisner, the offer/demand law explains why an Astérix page is more expensive.

-Finally, a last point specifically for Uderzo: He still has in his possession a lot of his Astérix art, and is planning to give some (most?) of it to a museum. Here again, fewer pages for collectors, and thus more competition and higher prices.

 

But overall, even with these points, I think the european market is more expensive than the american one. It seems more obvious to me on the cheapest part of the spectrum: Even for new european artists, who just published their first book, it's rare to find pages for less than a few hundreds bucks.

 

 

I suspect that the Herge TinTin pages draw some interest.

 

 

I agree, this is probably the highlight of the auction.

 

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oldwhy

oldwhy

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Thanks for your insight. Would you say that generally European collectors appreciate comic art more? I always thought that comic artists and their work have a very different status in Europe than in the US.

 

However, I completely agree with your thoughts on supply and demand. Just compare the number of pages Kirby has produced over his career to Uderzo's output and the prices actually start making sense.

 

 

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alxjhnsn

alxjhnsn

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Finally, a last point specifically for Uderzo: He still has in his possession a lot of his Astérix art, and is planning to give some (most?) of it to a museum. Here again, fewer pages for collectors, and thus more competition and higher prices.

For Herge lovers, the situation is worse. The bulk of his art is already in a museum, Musee Herge. Good luck ever finding a page in the wild much less buying it.

 

In the US, we have a few similar situations even if they haven't reached these cost heights.

Over time, I wouldn't be shocked to see the very small amount of published art in the wild from either series go up as the works become more well known. TinTin and Asterix have decades of worldwide publishing history behind them that Bone and Elfquest can't quite match. That may change.

 

 

And in answer to the question about European tastes, yes, I think that they take comic books much more seriously than Americans. Just look at their preferred publishing format - thin hard covers with large pages as opposed to the small floppy that we buy. Look at their comic book stores, too.

 

Anyway, it's all more money than I have though that TinTin page ... :)

 

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Bronty

Bronty

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I wonder if it went down something like this:

 

Hey Qian? I need to make a splash with my environmental foundation and get the name out there. Bid on my painting will ya? I'll scratch your back on the next deal.

 

--

 

Sotheby's had estimated that the painting would sell for between $194,000 to $323,000. The auction house said that all proceeds from the sale of this lot will benefit the Paradise International Foundation, an environmental group that Ma and Fanzhi co-founded.

 

The buyer of the painting was another Chinese billionaire, Qian Fenglei, a philanthropist and entrepreneur, the auction house said.

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NicoV

NicoV

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I just got my Sotheby's catalog in the mail, one of the best auction catalogs I've ever gotten. Hardback, beautiful paper.....top notch!

I received TWO catalogs, I guess they consider me as a good client hm

But I would prefer not-so-nice catalogs and lower fees :grin:

 

EUR 250k for an Asterix panel page? Which US artist would sell on that level?

A few elements that may partly explain the situation:

(...)

-European artists typically produce fewer pages than their american counterpart. An Astérix comics has 42 pages. There are 34 albums drawn by Uderzo. This amount to around 1400 total Astérix pages. Uderzo drew some earlier stuff, but not enough to drastically change the ballpark of this total. If you compare this with the number of pages drawn by Kirby or Eisner, the offer/demand law explains why an Astérix page is more expensive.

-Finally, a last point specifically for Uderzo: He still has in his possession a lot of his Astérix art, and is planning to give some (most?) of it to a museum. Here again, fewer pages for collectors, and thus more competition and higher prices.

+ "Asterix et Cleopatre" is probably the best / most famous Asterix comics.

 

But I consider this estimate as really high for this page which is not really interesting.

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Eltanin

Eltanin

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Thanks for your insight. Would you say that generally European collectors appreciate comic art more? I always thought that comic artists and their work have a very different status in Europe than in the US.

It's hard to say if european appreciate art more. It seems to me some collect from nostalgia, others for the art, and for most collectors it's a mix of the two. Just like for US collectors. :D

 

But as Alex pointed out, comics in general seem to have a better status among the general population in Europe than in the US.

Comic Art dealers in Europe also try a lot to look respectable and to blurr the lines between comic art and fine art (some artists do the same. Just google Enki Bilal to have an example). Now, almost every time a new comic book is released (from a famous artist), a comic art gallery will organize an art exhibition and a cocktail opening night, in order to sell the pages from this book. I'm not sure this approach is really efficient as I don't think they really manage to attract new buyers (except Oleg? :D), but they try to give comic art an image of respectable art.

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